5 Changes the Los Angeles Lakers Have to Make to Get Back on Track
The Los Angeles Lakers have spoiled the faithful with 16 world championships. That is yesterday's news.
On pace to suffer through their worst season ever (since last year), the depleted 1-8 Lakers have more holes than a bagel factory.
The team is so far off track in its attempt to build a roster that will contend in the NBA's Western Conference that it could be several years before the Lakers resemble a championship-caliber franchise again.
It won’t be easy. The Lakers look to be in a free fall, playing well for a quarter or two before eventually succumbing to opponents with a stronger bench, penetrating point guards, better shooters and overall hustle.
Sure, Kobe Bryant is averaging 25.4 points through nine games. But he's also shooting a career-low 37 percent from the floor (30 percent from three-point range) and is playing more than 35 minutes a game. That's just way too much for a 36-year-old shooting guard who has been running up and down the court for 19 years.
Playing Bryant that many minutes merely points out how the Lakers lack additional, consistent scorers.
With Nick Young still sidelined and Ryan Kelly slowly making his way back, the club is missing any real threat from long-distance and is quite predictable on both ends of the court. They're getting killed in the paint, where the opposition seems to get any shot it pursues.
Simply put, the Lakers need a lot of help in a lot of areas to get back on a winning, playoff-bound track.
After losing to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, Bryant was asked how he felt about meeting the defending champion San Antonio Spurs on Friday. Their continuing success with the same nucleus of stars had him yearning for the old days, he told Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times:
"I'm extremely jealous of that. I don't know if I can express to you how jealous I am of the fact that Tim (Duncan), Tony (Parker), Manu (Ginobli) and Pop (Gregg Popovich) have all been together for all those years. Like, I can't even ... I can't express to you how jealous I am of that. Not all this up and down stuff.
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Predictably, the Lakers lost Friday to the Spurs by 13. Bryant played in the game but was not himself and may have come down with the flu. He went 1-14 from the field.
The hope inside Lakers Nation is that Bryant gets well soon. He may miss one game at most.
The team will need a lot longer to regain its collective health.
1. Young, Athletic Players Wanted at All Positions
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Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson are representative of the direction the Lakers must go in order to restore themselves to prominence.
The Lakers need more, and they've already been hard at work to make that happen.
Developing young talent is a slow, often painstaking process. And you’ve got to be a little lucky as well, hoping that you draft the right player and that he doesn't get injured early in his career.
The Lakers have been fortunate in the past, mostly by trading for or signing big-name talent away from other teams. But with a collective bargaining agreement in place that penalizes such teams that spend too much, the Lakers are forced to take a more conventional route.
That will take time.
Players like Randle, Clarkson, Ed Davis, and Ryan Kelly all have tremendous upside potential, and the Lakers should be in position to secure more potential come next June when they are expected to get a high draft pick in the lottery.
Wesley Johnson fits the prototype of that younger, athletic wing player, though he hasn't been consistent enough in LA. Still, now is the time to really give players like Johnson that opportunity.
Time and patience will decide which players fit.
2. Take Kobe off the Books in 2016
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The final decision will be Kobe Bryant’s to make.
Lakers president and governor Jeanie Buss remarked to USA Today's Sam Amick recently that she hopes the Black Mamba does not hang up his sneakers when his current two-year deal runs out in 2016.
"I hope not. I really hope not. I mean I’m a person who watched Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar) play until he was 42 (years old). Jimmy Connors played on my World Team Tennis team (of which she was the general manager), the LA Strings, that summer that he went into the US Open at age 39 and made the semis at 39 years old. So I’ve seen it. I know you can’t beat Father Time, but there are those athletes who can transcend the average age of retirement. And if anyone can do that, my money is on the Black Mamba.
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If he is healthy, Bryant could still help the Lakers win—but not at the price tag he currently commands. Even though he took a 20 percent pay cut, Bryant still receives more money ($23.5 million per year) than any other active player in the NBA, and that’s a strain on the team.
The Lakers and Bryant together will need to make a decision when the time comes. The current CBA extends through the 2020-21 season but could come up for renewal after the 2016-17 season if either side opts out.
With the recently signed television rights deal, the league will be flush with cash in a couple of years, and that should mean higher limits placed on teams’ payrolls.
Regardless, the Lakers and Bryant would be smart to negotiate a new, lower-priced deal if the Mamba decides to come back for more. They'll need as much cash as possible to go after the big free agents hitting the market, such as Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard.
3. Lakers Management Preaches Patience
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There's no question Mitch Kupchak has been a good soldier for the Lakers and made some very wise moves as general manager in order to keep them at or near the top of the NBA hierarchy.
Ownership rewarded the 60-year-old executive with a new contract extension last spring, just as the Lakers were losing their 53rd game of the year and finishing their worst season since moving to LA in 1960.
Kupchak has the backing of the Buss family and is considered one of the league's top GMs. Still, to hear him talk about the patience needed by fans before the Lakers are contenders again is not something the faithful are used to hearing.
Kupchak learned from one of the best, serving as an assistant to Jerry West before taking over the GM position full-time in 2000. He's made some tremendous moves, including the deal that brought Pau Gasol to Los Angeles in 2008.
But more recent deals turned sour (Steve Nash, Dwight Howard), and for the first time in a long time, the Lakers are looking to build through the draft and cultivate younger talent.
As Byron Scott told his players per Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com:
"I told them that I have no doubt that we will win a championship in my tenure here as head coach, because I know this organization. But I do know it's going to take some patience. It's a process.
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Lakers Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar thinks that Kupchak and the team face difficult times ahead:
"I think all that good luck has abandoned them and all the bad luck that they should have been getting during that time has come to visit them at once. It's going to take them a couple years to get out of that rut.
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The Lakers always seem to retool in a hurry, and perhaps they will. In the meantime, they are preaching patience, which is the operative word for the entire season and beyond.
4. Play the Younger Guys: They Are Your Future
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Giving rookies and younger players more time on the court is often tantamount to throwing in the towel on the season.
But if the Lakers are building for the future, they will need to play that future—and do it now. The veterans are not going to win them a title any time soon, so why not give minutes to the young guys?
It will take some time for the team to develop such talented young players as Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Ed Davis and Ryan Kelly. All possess the skills to succeed in the NBA and could easily become integral pieces in a future run at the title.
Randle is out for the year with a broken leg, and Kelly has been sidelined with a right hamstring injury.
Clarkson was the team's top scorer in Summer League and has been relatively steady as a backup point guard through the team's first nine games. He scored eight points in 22 minutes Friday against the San Antonio Spurs.
Sure, the Lakers are trying to win games. But they aren't good enough for a playoff run, so playing Xavier Henry, Clarkson, Davis, Kelly, Wesley Johnson and others more only makes them better in the long run.
5. Look for and Acquire the Next Face of the Franchise
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The Lakers will never stop in their attempt at securing the "next big thing."
History shows—and their fans demand—that the Lakers have a superstar face of the franchise. Kobe Bryant thought he would be handing off that proverbial baton to Dwight Howard in a couple of years, but the big center didn't want it.
Whether it turns out to be Kevin Love, Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, LaMarcus Aldridge, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant, expect Los Angeles to pull out all the stops when those opportunities arise.
The Lakers may have been spurned by Chris Paul (via former commissioner David Stern) and Howard, and they made a bold move that went south in acquiring Nash from the Phoenix Suns.
But all that recent heartache won't prevent Mitch Kupchak and the Buss family from eventually bringing in the team's next superstar. And according to sources, that could be Love.
The hometown fans would love to see the former UCLA standout in purple and gold. The rumors will be there all season, even if Love himself discounts them.
Via Sam Smith of NBA.com:
"It’s not going to get as much discussion during the season, but one of the biggest issues for the Cavs is that both LeBron James and Kevin Love own opt outs after this season. LeBron James basically cannot afford to go anywhere after his return to Cleveland. But watch out for Love. Indications are he will seriously consider the opt out and has his eyes on a return to Los Angeles, where he attended college and where the Lakers long have had him on their free agent wish list.
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