Early-Summer Returns Show Lakers That Post-Kobe Era Could Be a Lot of Fun

LAS VEGAS — This is the land of the mirage. And while the pretty people partying endlessly are the promotional draw, Las Vegas is a place where the aging and over-the-hill try to turn back the clock. Magician David Copperfield still performs twice nightly at the hotel where the Los Angeles Lakers are staying during NBA Summer League. Mobile billboard trucks clog the Strip to promote Britney Spears' concerts.

All of the excessive air conditioning is like quick-fix cryotherapy. Even Kobe Bryant's Vegas-resident father, Joe, was milling around on the periphery at Lakers games Friday and Saturday like a wannabe.

It's a funny place for the Lakers to get over their longstanding fear of a youth movement.

Though determined to stay relevant as long as possible and avoid a dreaded rebuild, the Lakers received a clear message over the weekend about how exciting it can feel to let the circle of life happen.

The Lakers owned the opening weekend of the Las Vegas Summer League in the way they ruled the sports world not too long ago.

They have a monster fanbase in Vegas, a byproduct of their proximity and the Buss family's decision to play at least one exhibition game there annually. Judging from the packed crowds this year, Lakers fans are making a clear statement of how willing they are to put their hopes in something real at this point—even if it's going to take a long time to be title-ready.

D'Angelo Russell also spent the weekend making a statement…by hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer Saturday night to beat Ben Simmons and a Philadelphia 76ers squad that already had three games of experience playing together at the Utah Jazz Summer League.

Russell has faults—and Luke Walton and lead assistant Brian Shaw are already working to balance his ego with team responsibilities—but the 2015 No. 2 overall pick believes he has that "it" quality. Folks who only saw the one-shot final clip missed Russell hitting the tying jumper earlier, spawning an ice-in-my-veins celebration then, too.

Ideally, the responsibility he will inherit with Kobe Bryant out of the picture will accelerate the maturity he needs to develop.

For one day, although it was only July, Russell showed Lakers fans that he might be ready to assume some of the leadership of the post-Kobe era.

The future, however, won't rely on Russell alone.

The next-gen Lakers will be more of a rock group than a solo artist. That is evident in the love Vegas fans are showing for Larry Nance Jr., a rare blend of soaring and scrapping, and earnest Croatian rookie Ivica Zubac ("I love playing for Lakers!" Zubac told Nance during his first summer game).

The beginning of this new Lakers entity has been legitimately fun. For example, rookie Brandon Ingram was given Bryant's old locker at the home practice facility. Quite the respected honor. Then Ingram's teammates anointed him to lead the team out for on-court warm-ups before the first game in Vegas…except no one followed him, leaving him to stand out there alone, fully pranked.

Beyond the locker room games, Ingram has an unmistakable feel to go with his skills. Even though he's not strong enough to move NBA bodies out of his way, he is eager to initiate contact when appropriate.

Ingram said his approach is to "let the game come to me," a lesson largely imparted by Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Garrett Ellwood/Getty Images

Even Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson are having trouble not being a part of this. Randle practiced with the summer-league team back in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Clarkson wanted to but didn't sign his new contract Thursday until after practice. That's how much those guys, like Russell, want to be a part of this, to learn from Walton, who has been involved in practice sessions.

Clarkson followed the team to Vegas and was sitting courtside, where he could be the first one to reach Russell after his winning shot Saturday. He followed that by taking his young teammates out to dinner at the Cosmopolitan Hotel after the game…all on his dime after getting a new four-year, $50 million contract.

Clarkson's deal, while another piece of good news for the Lakers this summer, also served to remind of the mistakes from which this team still has to dig out.

Determined to preserve salary-cap space in 2014 to get LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, the Lakers put off signing Clarkson after the draft. The second-round pick proceeded to lead the team with 15.8 points per game in Vegas, legitimizing himself to the point that he only wanted a two-year guaranteed contract—forgoing a third-year team option that would've kicked in this coming season. (Second-round picks Anthony Brown in 2015 and Zubac in '16, both drafted higher than Clarkson, accepted those two years and that third-year team option, and each signed before summer league.)

While dreaming of LeBron and Carmelo in 2014, the Lakers also denied Kent Bazemore a $1.1 million qualifying offer to preserve cap space and lost him to the Atlanta Hawks. Making matters worse, the Lakers had already guaranteed 2014-15 salary to Jim Buss project Robert Sacre. They then chose to keep Ryan Kelly with a $1.1 million qualifying offer rather than Bazemore.

While Kelly has struggled to make an impact, Bazemore blossomed for the Hawks and appreciated their trust so much that he turned down a higher offer from the Lakers this summer to stay with Atlanta. The Lakers then settled for Luol Deng, four years older than Bazemore, to make sure they got someone to take their $72 million offer.

The four-year free-agent contracts that the nervous Lakers front office gave center Timofey Mozgov and Deng might become serious problems when it comes time to pay Randle big money in two years and Russell in three. However, the Lakers were intent on not totally striking out in this free agency, after initially believing they could sign two star players with their massive salary-cap room.

The plan had two flaws. First, most of the league entered this summer with significant salary-cap room, thanks to the NBA's new broadcast deals. And second, the free-agent class of 2017 will offer deeper reserves of star power than this summer did. It didn't make sense except for the reality that Buss has promised to step down unless the team improves significantly by next year. The Lakers had to make what improvements they could.

Maybe the Lakers can jettison Mozgov or Deng if the time comes as they near their mid-30s, attaching future draft picks to make their contracts go away via trade. That's what the Lakers used to do when they could only think of winning now—wanting to give Bryant the best chance they could and pushing aside the unpleasant struggle of young player development.

But they've backed their way into rebuilding now, losing so much that they wound up keeping the lottery-protected picks they promised other clubs while building the Dwight Howard-Steve Nash failure.

That youth is what the 16,208 fans at the game on Saturday were ready to embrace. That set a new attendance record for the NBA Summer League in Vegas—by nearly 4,000 fans. And when the Lakers didn't play Sunday, attendance was cut almost in half to 8,412.

Does anyone remember that Draymond Green helped the Golden State Warriors' summer team win the tournament championship in Vegas in 2013? If the Lakers win it this week, it won't make or break this rebuild, but it would add to the momentum.

There remains confusion about the future management of the Lakers, but Buss, Kupchak, Jesse Buss, Ryan West and the Lakers' scouts have at least done well in building this young core.

This big rebuild has come to the Lakers, like it or not.

Believe it or not, these first days of the "Mamba Out" era have felt inspiring.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.