To piggyback on Kevin Pelton's article for ESPN insider,
1. We currently don't have one in the making unless one of our youngsters defies expectations and delivers a pleasant surprise
Still, the Lakers' years in the lottery will prove worth it only if they can develop a star from their lottery picks. Randle and Russell haven't yet shown that potential on a consistent basis, though they could certainly get there. And while it's entirely premature to render a verdict on 2016 No. 2 overall pick Brandon Ingram, who's still 19, the early returns have not been encouraging.
Ingram's hot college shooting (he shot 41.0 percent on 3s in his lone year at Duke) hasn't held up; he's making just 29.7 percent from 3-point range, seventh worst among players with at least 100 attempts, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Worse yet, Ingram is also making less than 40 percent of his 2-point attempts (39.8 percent), which would make him the 25th player in NBA history to pull off that particular double.
The inaccurate shooting has outweighed the promise Ingram has shown as a playmaker and defender. His 2.8 wins below replacement level by my WARP metric are worst in the league, as is his minus-5.4 rating in ESPN's real plus-minus (RPM).
Naturally, that's partially because Ingram has played more than the typical 19-year-old rookie, but it's hard to find players who have started so poorly and become anything more than capable reserves.
2. Thanks to Jimbo and Mitch's unfounded exuberance over the summer, we are cap tied for the foreseeable future
This year's draft seems even more important for the Lakers in the context of their past seven months. First, the Lakers spent lavishly in last summer's free-agency period in a misguided effort to win now. Their four-year, $64 million deal for Mozgov looked irrationally exuberant at the time, and already the Lakers have been much better with Mozgov on the bench this season.
Meanwhile, Luol Deng has predictably struggled at small forward after revitalizing his career as an undersized 4 last season with the Miami Heat. Because Deng is 31 and Mozgov 30, those contracts only figure to get worse as both players age.
3. Even otherwise if we move our money around, getting a superstar in free agency us near impossible because the new CBA incentivizes superstars to stay with their teams
Despite overpaying Deng and Mozgov, the Lakers could still clear $20-plus million in cap space this summer by waiving Black, whose $6.7 million salary is non-guaranteed. However, the addition of the designated player rule in the new NBA collective bargaining agreement makes it less likely the league's best players change teams in free agency. Unless the Lakers can persuade Blake Griffin to change locker rooms at Staples Center (and clear the remaining necessary space to get him), they're likely going to be bidding on second-tier free agents such as Gordon Hayward of the Utah Jazz for the foreseeable future.
Adding such a player in free agency can still help fill out a contending roster, but the Lakers aren't anywhere close to having one right now.
http://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/18541224/how-far-los-angeles-lakers-winning-nba
It remains to be seen who will be in charge at the end of the season as Jeannie is done posturing and there are rumors that she is going to try her hardest to entice Jerry West back into the fold but Jerry has recently had a medical scare and needed to be hospitalized. So its open to speculation how much longer he even wants to be around the game.
No matter who comes in, the next two drafts are going to dictate if we are ever going to take off or be slammed down to being a constant in the NBA cellar for a long while. It could ofcourse get worse if we also owe an unprotected pick to Orlando.
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