LA Lakers: 5 Steps to Take Towards Building a New Lakers Dynasty

This article will look at the steps the Los Angeles Lakers need to take towards building their next dynasty.

Thankfully, the Lakers have had consistent success since moving to Los Angeles in 1960, avoiding the long, arduous rebuilding phases some teams have to endure between stretches of success.

With Kobe Bryant starting to reach the end of his career and Phil Jackson retiring, the team will need to start planning for the future in hopes of avoiding the dreaded, aforementioned rebuilding phase.

Here are five steps the Los Angeles Lakers need to take towards building their next dynasty.

5. Don't Take the Draft Lightly

The Los Angeles Lakers consistently have one of the better records in the NBA every season. Therefore, they won’t be drafting a future superstar anytime soon.

But that doesn’t mean the draft can’t be used to find players who can play an important role in building the next dynasty.

For every Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan and Michael Jordan, there was a Kurt Rambis, Bruce Bowen and Steve Kerr.

Role players are just as instrumental to building a championship core as superstars are.

4. Is Mike Brown Dynasty Material?

When one thinks of past NBA dynasties, coaches such as Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich all come to mind.

Does anyone think Mike Brown is a coach capable of being mentioned amongst these coaching greats one day?

I know, I know, players win championships, and the coaches listed above were fortunate enough to coach some of the game’s elite players.

But it would be silly to underestimate the importance of the coach when building a dynasty.

Maybe I'm wrong and Mike Brown will prove to be a perfect fit for the Lakers going forward. Somehow, though, I think the team will need to make a coaching change between now and winning its next championship.

3. Who Will Replace Kobe Bryant as the Team's Franchise Player?

Any great dynasty needs an elite superstar at its core. With the end of Kobe Bryant’s career in the not so distant future, the team needs to figure out who’s going to replace Kobe as the face of the franchise.

Some Lakers fans believe Kobe’s successor could be Andrew Bynum. Thus far, though, Bynum has spent more time on the injury list than playing All-Star-caliber basketball—only showing glimpses of brilliance in his first six seasons in the league.

Assuming Bynum isn’t the answer, then who is?

Another question is when.

Do the Lakers wait until Kobe retires? Or does the team bring someone in while Kobe is still playing in hopes of making the transition easier?

2. Will History Repeat Itself?

Will history repeat itself? The birth of the last two Los Angeles Lakers dynasties—the “Showtime” dynasty of the 1980s and the Kobe-Shaq dynasty of the early 2000s—had one thing in common: The team acquired another team’s star center as the cornerstone of the respective dynasties.

Prior to the 1975-76 season, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers after claiming his religious and cultural views didn’t mesh well with a small-market Midwestern city like Milwaukee.

Abdul-Jabbar teamed up with Magic Johnson, leading the Lakers to five championships in the 1980s.

In the summer of 1996, Shaquille O’Neal came to Los Angeles as a free agent after spending the first four years of his career with the Orlando Magic.

With Kobe Bryant as his sidekick, Shaq led the Lakers to three consecutive championships (2000-2002).

I guess Lakers fans will forever be in debt to the Bucks and Magic.

But back to the present day. As I mentioned in the previous slide, the Lakers will sooner rather than later have to bring in a superstar to build their next dynasty around.

Will the team attempt to bring in a dominant big man like it has in the past? Or will it hope to build its next dynasty around a superstar who plays a different position?

1. Build Their Next Dynasty Around a Point Guard

I think the next Los Angeles Lakers dynasty should be built around a dominating point guard; after all, there is no center in the league right now with the offensive prowess Shaquille O’Neal and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had. Sorry, Dwight Howard, you’re not even close.

Also, the team already has a center in Andrew Bynum who could possibly blossom into a dominating center.

Even if they bring in a star point guard before Kobe Bryant retires, he could alleviate some of the pressure on Kobe to produce so much perimeter scoring.

Then whenever Kobe is ready to call it quits, bam, the team has an elite point guard at its disposal.