The Lakers: Actually Fun Next Year?

[apc]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

What can I say, watching the Lakers struggle and lose is fun for me.

[apc]

Bill Simmons is having fun with the Lakers today 

Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
22 wins... Let's do this Laker fans!!!!

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
I'm voting for a Buss-Kupchak prez ticket in November. If they can save our country like they saved the Lakers...


 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
And kudos to Jordan Clarkson who has proven over the last few weeks that he should get a max extension this summer.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
And I want to apologize for all my Byron Scott jokes - from what I've seen these last few games, he should run the Lakers for years to come.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
D'Angelo Russell has gotten better every month - he has a real chance to win Rookie of the Year if he keeps pushing himself.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
Congrats to the Buss family + Mitch Kupchak for building a young/fun/competitive team that's finishing Kobe's last season with Laker pride!

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
Hey 2016 Lakers, just say no... to 60+ losses.

[hwangjini_1]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

pho, you missed the point on that post i think. the poster did not mean "lakers" are fun to watch. the poster meant "losing lakers" are fun to watch.

i can relate to this sentiment.

[alldaboston]

They're gonna be really good in a few years. Believe me.

[makaveli]

The long time rival.  The hated enemy.  The dying corpse of the Kobe years.  The crumbling ruins of the ancient Showtime Lakers temple. 



The worst coach in the league.  Three of the most unrepentant gunners in the league, including the least repentant gunner in league history playing out his retirement tour, all on the same team.

This is what the Lakers have been this past year.


Don't look now, but they could actually be ... fun? ... next year.



Here's what the Lakers' young prospects are doing in the month of March so far:

Russell: 23.6 points, 4.4 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 47% / 43% / 75% shooting in 33.9 mpg.
Randle: 16.4 points 11.0 rebounds on 50% FG, 83.3% FT in 26.5 mpg.
Clarkson: 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 43.9% / 41.9% / 87.5% shooting in 32.6 mpg.


The Lakers have shown that they are adept at turning one of the easiest team building situations in the league into a tire fire.  Still, it's not hard to imagine how this could turn around in the next six months and be genuinely fun next year.  Enough so that even Celts fans would have to admit it.


Step 1:

Kobe retires, fire Byron Scott. 

Good riddance.  Let the healing begin.

Step 2:

Lottery works out in Lakers' favor.

This means they get a top 3 pick so it doesn't go to Philly.  For the sake of argument let's say they get #2 or #3, which becomes either Brandon Ingram or Jaylen Brown.  They also pick at #32.

Let's say they use #32 on a player with some college experience who may have some untapped potential.  How about: Caris LeVert.


Step 3:

Clear the roster of the old and unclean.

Let Hibbert walk.  Let Bob Sacre walk.  Say goodbye to Metta. 

Use Lou Williams and Brandon Bass as sweetener to dump Nick Young.  Lou and Bass are still valuable role players for a potential playoff team.

How about the Knicks?

Lou Williams, Brandon Bass, Nick Young for Jose Calderon, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Williams.


Step 4:

Hire a young coach with no expectation of immediate winning or utilization of the triangle.

How about ... Luke Walton?



Former Laker, showed he can at the very least do no harm leading the way on a very good team.  Why not bring him back and see if he can instill some of the Warriors' ways on the young Lakers?


Step 5:

Sign some young UFAs early on in Free Agency while other teams are bidding on big fish, don't be afraid to overpay.

This is basically the strategy the Blazers employed last year, and it seems to have worked quite well. 

Here, the Lakers can go even bigger because of their market.  They don't need to avoid swinging for the fences, they just need to target guys who will still be in their prime when Russell, Ingram / Brown, and Randle are at their apex 3-4 years from now.


How about this for a free agency haul?

Hassan Whiteside -- $25 million per, 4 years.  Doesn't he just scream "Future Lakers Center" to you?

Kent Bazemore -- 3 years, $15 million per.  He already had one pretty decent season in LA.  Why not bring him back, too?  He wont' have to play next to Kobe this time.

Jon Leuer -- 3 years, $10 million per. A good, solid young vet who doesn't need the ball, can spread the floor, and does the dirty work on the boards.  You want this sort of player on a young team.

Dewayne Dedmon -- 3 years, $7.5 million per.  A reasonably productive 7 footer, he does what you expect a 7 footer to do.  Playing only 10 mpg on an Orlando team flush with talent, he could play closer to 20 for the Lakers and serve as a good investment.


After making these moves, the Lakers can re-sign Jordan Clarkson, who is an UFA with a small cap hold, to a long term deal.


With all of these moves, what do we have left?

Coach: Luke Walton

Starters:

D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Kent Bazemore, Julius Randle, Hassan Whiteside

Bench:

Jose Calderon, Ingram/Brown, Larry Nance Jr., Jon Leuer, Dewayne Dedmon

Deep bench:

Caris LeVert, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Williams, Anthony Brown, Marco Huertas


Admit it ... you'd watch that team.

i'm not sure to give you a TP for all of your trouble and thought process being that you spend it on Lakers.
IMHO every team could make a case for them selfs in that sense...a few good young players on a bad team getting quality numbers in a short period of time.
they will most likely fail to make the playoffs for a couple of years,  especially in a packed west

[GreenFaith1819]

Bill Simmons is having fun with the Lakers today 

Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
22 wins... Let's do this Laker fans!!!!

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
I'm voting for a Buss-Kupchak prez ticket in November. If they can save our country like they saved the Lakers...


 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
And kudos to Jordan Clarkson who has proven over the last few weeks that he should get a max extension this summer.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
And I want to apologize for all my Byron Scott jokes - from what I've seen these last few games, he should run the Lakers for years to come.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
D'Angelo Russell has gotten better every month - he has a real chance to win Rookie of the Year if he keeps pushing himself.

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
Congrats to the Buss family + Mitch Kupchak for building a young/fun/competitive team that's finishing Kobe's last season with Laker pride!

 Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  5h5 hours ago
Hey 2016 Lakers, just say no... to 60+ losses.

PURE GOLD.

[Ilikesports17]

I understand the whole "I like to appreciate good exciting basketball thing" and I also understand the whole "lets appreciate greatness" thing where people pulled for Lebron.

But as a Red Sox fan I cant imagine being excited to watch a good Yankees squad.

I have never said, boy I hope the Jets are great. I never rooted for Manning QBd teams.

Looking back my favorite sporting memories would not exist without 18, the Yankees, Lebron or the Lakers. Ultimately a big part of me wants the Lakers to return to contention. However I think I will always root for these guys to fail.

Lets put it this way. I want to see the Lakers be successful but only a notch below us.

 I want them to the Cavs to our Warriors.

[Ilikesports17]

The long time rival.  The hated enemy.  The dying corpse of the Kobe years.  The crumbling ruins of the ancient Showtime Lakers temple. 



The worst coach in the league.  Three of the most unrepentant gunners in the league, including the least repentant gunner in league history playing out his retirement tour, all on the same team.

This is what the Lakers have been this past year.


Don't look now, but they could actually be ... fun? ... next year.



Here's what the Lakers' young prospects are doing in the month of March so far:

Russell: 23.6 points, 4.4 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 47% / 43% / 75% shooting in 33.9 mpg.
Randle: 16.4 points 11.0 rebounds on 50% FG, 83.3% FT in 26.5 mpg.
Clarkson: 19.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 43.9% / 41.9% / 87.5% shooting in 32.6 mpg.


The Lakers have shown that they are adept at turning one of the easiest team building situations in the league into a tire fire.  Still, it's not hard to imagine how this could turn around in the next six months and be genuinely fun next year.  Enough so that even Celts fans would have to admit it.


Step 1:

Kobe retires, fire Byron Scott. 

Good riddance.  Let the healing begin.

Step 2:

Lottery works out in Lakers' favor.

This means they get a top 3 pick so it doesn't go to Philly.  For the sake of argument let's say they get #2 or #3, which becomes either Brandon Ingram or Jaylen Brown.  They also pick at #32.

Let's say they use #32 on a player with some college experience who may have some untapped potential.  How about: Caris LeVert.


Step 3:

Clear the roster of the old and unclean.

Let Hibbert walk.  Let Bob Sacre walk.  Say goodbye to Metta. 

Use Lou Williams and Brandon Bass as sweetener to dump Nick Young.  Lou and Bass are still valuable role players for a potential playoff team.

How about the Knicks?

Lou Williams, Brandon Bass, Nick Young for Jose Calderon, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Williams.


Step 4:

Hire a young coach with no expectation of immediate winning or utilization of the triangle.

How about ... Luke Walton?



Former Laker, showed he can at the very least do no harm leading the way on a very good team.  Why not bring him back and see if he can instill some of the Warriors' ways on the young Lakers?


Step 5:

Sign some young UFAs early on in Free Agency while other teams are bidding on big fish, don't be afraid to overpay.

This is basically the strategy the Blazers employed last year, and it seems to have worked quite well. 

Here, the Lakers can go even bigger because of their market.  They don't need to avoid swinging for the fences, they just need to target guys who will still be in their prime when Russell, Ingram / Brown, and Randle are at their apex 3-4 years from now.


How about this for a free agency haul?

Hassan Whiteside -- $25 million per, 4 years.  Doesn't he just scream "Future Lakers Center" to you?

Kent Bazemore -- 3 years, $15 million per.  He already had one pretty decent season in LA.  Why not bring him back, too?  He wont' have to play next to Kobe this time.

Jon Leuer -- 3 years, $10 million per. A good, solid young vet who doesn't need the ball, can spread the floor, and does the dirty work on the boards.  You want this sort of player on a young team.

Dewayne Dedmon -- 3 years, $7.5 million per.  A reasonably productive 7 footer, he does what you expect a 7 footer to do.  Playing only 10 mpg on an Orlando team flush with talent, he could play closer to 20 for the Lakers and serve as a good investment.


After making these moves, the Lakers can re-sign Jordan Clarkson, who is an UFA with a small cap hold, to a long term deal.


With all of these moves, what do we have left?

Coach: Luke Walton

Starters:

D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Kent Bazemore, Julius Randle, Hassan Whiteside

Bench:

Jose Calderon, Ingram/Brown, Larry Nance Jr., Jon Leuer, Dewayne Dedmon

Deep bench:

Caris LeVert, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Williams, Anthony Brown, Marco Huertas


Admit it ... you'd watch that team.

Honestly that roster looks really not that good.

Its like really OK and then you have your top 3 pick and Deangelo Russel.

Lets also keep in mind they will have a ~45% chance of not getting that top 3 pick.

I mean Minny has

Lavine Rubio
Wiggins
top 3 pick
whoever
Towns

Philly can easily move their bigs for a wing and a pg.

I mean Noel and Okafor for Bledsoe and parker seems fairish. Then take Ingram at 2,

Bledsoe
Ingram
Parker
Saric
Embiid

exciting!

The Suns have Knight and Bledsoe. Lens looked great lately. At a top 4 pick and boom! exciting!

Orlando! boom exciting!

Detroit! exciting!

I guess the fact that they are one of the original giants of the league makes it more relevant that they have found a root to relevance so quickly.

[PhoSita]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

pho, you missed the point on that post i think. the poster did not mean "lakers" are fun to watch. the poster meant "losing lakers" are fun to watch.

i can relate to this sentiment.

Oh, I understood the sentiment.

But after a while, the whole "watching a team you hate lose" stops being fun and just turns into a misanthropic exercise, especially since the Lakers, like the Nets for much of this year, have been a brutal team to watch from a pure basketball standpoint.

[LarBrd33]

They were pretty blatantly holding back the young guys in favor of the Kobe 25% shooting Road Show.  They have eased off and let the young guys get some burn since the all-star break... you're seeing what this team probably should have looked like all season if it wasn't shamelessly tanking. 

With Philly, the issue is that they intentionally set that roster up to fail.  Even with Brad Stevens running that roster, it would lose.  It's a collection of future assets and is tanking by design.  That's pretty traditional tanking.  It's what Ainge attempted to do last season when he gutted the roster of veterans.  They won in spite of his efforts and once we landed Thomas the idea of a top pick became secondary to making the playoffs. 

With the Lakers - it's a coach who I genuinely suspect was told to lose games this year out of a fear of losing the draft pick (45% chance they lose it right now and that rises to 55% if they fall to 3rd in the lotto race). 

[PhoSita]

IMHO every team could make a case for them selfs in that sense...a few good young players on a bad team getting quality numbers in a short period of time.

they will most likely fail to make the playoffs for a couple of years,  especially in a packed west

That's definitely true.  I just think it's an interesting thing to consider since the Lakers have seemed so hapless and joyless over the last few years.  It's conceivable they could have a really fun team before too long, even if it's not very competitive.

[Celtics18]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

What can I say, watching the Lakers struggle and lose is fun for me.

I agree with this.  I'm in no hurry for the Lakers to get good.  I'm cool watching them wallow in misery a little longer.

Luckily, I'm not as sold on their young core as some others seem to be. 

[Ilikesports17]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

What can I say, watching the Lakers struggle and lose is fun for me.

I agree with this.  I'm in no hurry for the Lakers to get good.  I'm cool watching them wallow in misery a little longer.

Luckily, I'm not as sold on their young core as some others seem to be.

They need clarkson back to be exciting next year and he figures to get massively overpaid.

If you sign Clarkson and Whiteside to a combined say 40 mil. Those 2 contracts will become a huge burden.

[Celtics18]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

pho, you missed the point on that post i think. the poster did not mean "lakers" are fun to watch. the poster meant "losing lakers" are fun to watch.

i can relate to this sentiment.

Oh, I understood the sentiment.

But after a while, the whole "watching a team you hate lose" stops being fun and just turns into a misanthropic exercise, especially since the Lakers, like the Nets for much of this year, have been a brutal team to watch from a pure basketball standpoint.

If you're looking for a secondary, tertiary, etc. team to root for after the Celtics, I can think of twenty-eight better choices.

[fairweatherfan]

I think the current losing Lakers are VERY fun to watch.

Really?  Have you actually watched them this year?  The Kobe Retirement Tour has been pretty awful.  After you watch a couple of highlight reels of Kobe bricking it up, it's not even funny anymore, just sad.

I don't know, I've watched this more than a couple times and it's still pretty funny:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nRYAsr7ALg