5 Biggest Issues Los Angeles Lakers Must Address This Offseason
Any NBA team that fails to make the playoffs four years running has some issues to address. Such is the case with the Los Angeles Lakers, a team in transition.
The Purple and Gold ripped the bandage off in February. That’s when the franchise’s controlling owner, Jeanie Buss, fired her brother Jim Buss along with longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak, replacing them with Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka as the president of basketball operations and GM respectively.
The Lakers' misfortunes can’t be laid solely at the feet of former front office execs. And certainly, a crop of talented young players obtained through recent drafts, along with the hire of Luke Walton as the team’s new head coach, provide a good base for Johnson and Pelinka to build upon.
But L.A. is also hampered in its growth by the costly long-term signings of two veteran players last summer—Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov. And there’s no guarantee that L.A. will survive the upcoming draft lottery and keep their top-three-protected pick.
So this battered team watches from the sidelines once again as others continue their postseason runs. But the weeks and months ahead will afford the opportunity to address roster needs as well as organizational talent.
The Lakers will move into a new $80 million state-of-the-art training complex this summer. It will be a fitting setting for a team turning the page.
Internal Free Agents
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The Lakers front office won’t be losing sleep over its own free agents this summer—none are must-have members of the roster. But decisions still need to be made.
Metta World Peace poured in 18 points in a rare start against the New Orleans Pelicans April 11. It was the Lakers’ final home game of the season, and a fitting close to the 37-year-old’s tenure in purple and gold. It’s doubtful World Peace will be re-signed as a player, but he’d make a good player development coach.
Not much was expected from Tyler Ennis when he arrived from the Houston Rockets in exchange for Marcelo Huertas (who was promptly waived by Houston). But after bouncing around the NBA with four teams in three years, Ennis came alive, averaging 11.3 points and 44.4 percent shooting from downtown in April.
“This is honestly the first time I was able to come onto a team and get a fair shot and a fair opportunity,” the 22-year-old said, per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. The point guard offers solid fundamentals for a modest investment.
Thomas Robinson is another guy who has wandered the league. The 5th overall pick in 2012 landed in L.A. last fall on a training camp invite after fizzling out with five previous teams.
His lack of success has much to do with teams’ proclivity for constant trades. But the frequent shuffling also hindered any hopes for development by the high-energy power forward who thrives on dunks and rebounds.
Don’t be surprised if the Lakers bring Robinson back and attempt to broaden his skill set.
Nick Young is expected to opt out of his contract this summer. His worth—whether to L.A. or another suitor—has been bolstered by a throwback season that saw him start 60 games and shoot a strong 40.4 percent from three-point territory.
Young’s declining stats on a month-to-month basis, beginning in January, are an issue. But it’s also important to note that the veteran wing’s minutes decreased correspondingly during that same time, as the development of younger players became the focus.
A case can be made for re-signing Swaggy P, but it would make more sense to target a younger, more athletic player who will still be in his prime once L.A. makes it back to contention in the West.
Organizational Changes
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The Lakers went through a massive front-office restructuring when Johnson and Pelinka took over for Buss and Kupchak. Longtime team spokesman John Black was also let go at the time.
Roster changes followed as Williams, Huertas and Jose Calderon exited stage left, replaced by Corey Brewer and Ennis.
It’s always tough on players to say goodbye to teammates mid-season. But the tides of change didn’t stop there.
During his introductory press conference, per NBA.com, Pelinka spoke of accountability, evaluation and how the various pieces of the larger organization would fit together.
“Our organization is composed of 200-250 employees,” the new GM said. “Our job is to make sure that all of those team members are functioning as a well-oiled machine, and together.”
As noted by Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, the reshaping of the Lakers has also resulted in the departure of assistant GM Glenn Carraro, strength and conditioning coach Tim DiFrancesco, his assistant Sean Light, director of player development Rondre Jackson and coordinator of basketball operations Tania Jolly.
And on Wednesday, as relayed by ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes, the Lakers “tried to demote Yuju Lee, their director of basketball analytics, but he instead decided to leave the organization altogether.”
The changeover in strength and conditioning will be felt keenly by the players, many of who, belonged to DiFrancesco’s informal workout Breakfast Club.
It should be noted that these kinds of overall shifts are not unusual when high-level shakeups occur. But player development, strength and conditioning and analytics are core components of today’s NBA franchises. It’s an unusual level of change for a family-run business that has always valued longevity.
Hopefully, the Lakers will attract the right talent to fill these holes. But at the moment, the well-oiled machine Pelinka alluded to seems to be running a couple quarts shy.
Defense
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It’s hard to accumulate wins in the NBA if you’re an average team offensively and a horrible team on the other end. This past season, the Lakers ranked 24th in offensive rating and dead last in defensive rating, per NBA.com.
This isn’t exactly a new development. L.A. hasn’t even been an average defensive team since Mike Brown’s one full season, and hasn’t ranked in the top 10 since the Phil Jackson era.
Since then, Mike D’Antoni didn’t put much emphasis on stopping the ball while Byron Scott barked at his players to little effect. As for Walton, he has at least brought a new motivational energy during his first season.
Backup power forward Larry Nance Jr. was the team’s best defender over the course of the season, and has even bigger goals moving forward.
“I want to be a guy who’s in the Defensive Player of the Year discussions,” Nance said during his exit interview, per NBA.com.
Julius Randle also discussed defensive goals during his exit interview, with an emphasis on becoming better at reads and patterns, singling out the Warriors’ Draymond Green as someone who “sees things before they happen.” He also mentioned his desire to become a better shot-blocker.
Also worth noting is rookie Ivica Zubac, who has great size and an instinctive ability to protect the rim.
The backcourt, however, was more problematic—particularly guards D'Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson. While talented scorers, they haven’t yet demonstrated any consistency when it comes to fighting screens, understanding when to rotate or sliding instead of reaching.
It’s bad enough when Russell and Clarkson are in different units. Paired together, they take on water like the Titanic.
The Draft
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In what has become an annual rite of passage, the Lakers once again have the potential to improve their roster significantly through the draft.
The team has a top-three-protected pick as well as the 28th overall selection (the latter, courtesy of the trade that sent Lou Williams to the Rockets).
But an unexpected late season surge—the Lakers won five of their last six games—didn’t help their lottery odds. Per ESPN, the organization now has a 46.9 percent chance of keeping its top pick, otherwise it goes to the Philadelphia 76ers.
If all goes right, the team could wind up with an elite prospect. Point guards Markelle Fultz of Washington and Lonzo Ball of UCLA, and small forwards Josh Jackson of Kansas and Jayson Tatum of Duke top the list.
Landing either Fultz or Ball would create an interesting scenario. Russell—L.A.’s No.2 pick in 2015—has been tantalizingly good at times. But he certainly hasn’t been the star point guard that many were hoping for, and was actually shifted over to shooting guard late in the season in one of Walton’s many experiments.
If an unfortunate bouncing of the lotto balls results in L.A. losing out on its top choice, that late-first-round pick will serve as a consolation prize. There are plenty of useful candidates who could be available at the bottom of the first round.
Those include UCLA power forward T.J. Leaf, Purdue big man Caleb Swanigan (a hard-nosed double-double machine who can also knock down the trey) and power forward Harry Giles from Duke.
Giles had a disappointing freshman season coming on the heels of two ACL injuries. That knocked him way down in the draft order. But if he can revert back to the form that once made him Scout.com's top high school player, he’ll be special—fast, smooth, shifty and able to dominate on both ends of the court at 6’11’ with a 7’3” wingspan.
External Free Agents
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Summer free agency is all about obtaining experienced impact players.
The signings of Deng and Mozgov put some constraints on future spending. According to Basketball Insiders’ Eric Pincus, L.A. will have about $28.3 million in available cap space. That’s not enough for an elite max offer in the current climate, but it’s still enough for one sizable contract or multiple lesser deals.
One name that keeps coming up isn’t an actual free agent—Paul George still has a year left with the Indiana Pacers. But the Lakers could pursue a trade for George if he doesn't earn All-NBA offers and thus doesn't qualify for the new $207 million deal with Indiana he's sure to accept if offered.
Nabbing the four-time All-Star via trade would require parting with key young assets. The front office might decide instead to hurl all the cash it can scrape together at a more readily available target.
Jrue Holiday is the type of playmaker who could give L.A. a more balanced look in the backcourt. His 7.3 dimes per game match the combined total of Russell (4.8) and Clarkson (2.6). And when it comes to defending the ball, there’s simply no comparison between Holiday and those two—he can switch positions, disrupt the passing lanes and smother most other guards one-one-one.
The eight-year veteran is an unrestricted free agent who has dealt with injury problems in the past, but he’s coming off a relatively healthy season in which he started 61 out of 67 games. Holiday knows the pick-and-roll inside and out, and would be a nice fit in Walton’s ball-movement system.
Of course, the Lakers will also be looking beyond well-established starters in their quest to lure talent. One interesting possibility would be Ersan Ilyasova, a journeyman who checks off a lot of boxes.
The Turkish power forward landed with the Atlanta Hawks during a February deadline trade and will now be an unrestricted free agent. He’d bring a much-needed ability to stretch the Lakers’ frontcourt and is versatile enough to play two positions. He often backed up Dwight Howard as a small-ball center during his short stint in Atlanta.
Whether it’s major changes or filling around the edges, expect to see some new faces in Los Angeles next season.
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