Lakers path to playoffs (next two summers) then to Championship

[LakersSoul]

The next 14 months could determine where we stand in the NBA pecking order. Magic and the Lakers will attempt to make a successful turnaround from a lottery team to a playoff contender and the key will be in the next 14 months. Key dates are:

May 16, 2017 - Lakers get #2 draft pick in the lottery
June 22, 2017 - Lakers pick their 2 draft picks (#2 and #28)
July 1, 2017 - FA negotiations open
March 1, 2018 - NBA trading deadline
June 22, 2018 - NBA draft (trades?)
July 1, 2018 - FA negotiations open

I expect us to get at least 2 draft picks next month and then 1-2 minor trades this summer to build flexibility and add assets. Next trading deadline (March 1, 2018) and FA negotiations date of July 1, 2018 will be the key target dates that catapults us into the playoff contention or rudely wakes us from our dream.

In the below interview, Rob and Magic talk about the strategies heading into the summer of 2018. One key note is that Magic talks about adding not one but TWO key FAs in 2018 (7:00 minutes into the interview) to jump us into the elite of NBA teams.

Watch on YouTube

2018 FA list:
1. Isaiah Thomas
2. Paul George
3. DeMarcus Cousins
4. Russell Westbrook
5. Brook Lopez
6. DeAndre Jordan

If Lakers can strike gold by adding two top notch FAs plus two more summers of youth development (see more details below), then we can seriously contend for top 3 in the west. I would love to add IT and PG who are the two most logical choices as they are both big time Lakers fans.

[LakersSoul]

Next two summers of youth development will be key to making noise in 2018-2019 season. Last summer, Dlo and Clarkson worked on their handles to improved their games to mixed signs of success. Dlo made a big jump as the #2 most talented guy in the Lakers but will need to be more consistent scorer and discover that killer instinct. Randle was disappointing as I belive he had digressed so he will really need to leave his mark this summer and season. Hope Randle works on driving to the right and using both hands to score. He could also focus on being a double/double machine as a killer rebounding machine.

This next two summer will be the key along with the 2018 FAs that the FO can lure into joining the Lakers team.

In the below video, you can see the players are already working on their craft. We have Zubac and Nance shooting hundreds that hopefully will turn into thousands of 3s daily. The guy talks about Zubac making 50% and Nance making 60% without defense on them. This will help on the spacing and add dimensions to the players and team as stretch 5s.

Watch on YouTube

In the video, Ingram talks about adding muscle and weight to his body. Ingram will also be working out with Kobe and I am hopeful this will mean a tougher and more intense Ingram that returns for his sophomore season.

The next 14 months will be the key to the Lakers turning into a serious contender for the western crown. Hope the players and FO are ready. The first test will be June 22 when we get 2 draft picks, #2 and #28.

[LakersSoul]

One of the goals for BI is to workout with Kobe over the summer and setup his "5 year plan". Love BI's mentality. This is why BI has to be the person to build around. BI is working to tweaking his mechanics over the summer and looks forward to summer league.


http://www.ocregister.com/2017/05/23/lakers-brandon-ingram-wants-to-dream-big-with-his-5-year-plan/

"D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., Ivica Zubac, Tyler Ennis and David Nwaba have all participated (in informal workouts).

“But I also want to continue to get better and better each and every year. Of course, you want to win more games every year. But my main goal right now is to get better and get closer toward having a winning team with the Lakers organization.”...

After averaging 9.4 points and shooting 40.2 percent during his rookie season, the 6-foot-9, 190-pound Ingram continues to focus on bulking up in the weight room and said he is tweaking “little mechanics” on his shooting stroke."

[LakersSoul]

Here is Dlo and Clarkson working over the summer on their craft.

Watch on YouTube

[LakersSoul]

Zubac, Nance and Dlo. Check out Nance working on his 3 point shooting. He is money (in the background from Zubac to start).

Watch on YouTube

[loveshaq786]

I am sooo stoked that Magic is leading this organization. I am sure he got rid of a lot of dead weight and has the confidence of players around the league that our organization is on the right track.

Luke Walton last season... Magic and Rob this season... LETS GOO!

[LakersSoul]

What Magic asked the players to improve upon this summer:

1. Nance: Jump shot from 12-15 range and from 3 pointer
2. Randle: Work on his right hand and finish at the rim
3. BI: Get stronger and add strength to finish at rim and get +1s
4. Clarkson: Improve ball handling and DEFENSE!
5. Dlo: Become a leader. Better decisions and DEFENSE!

Read on Twitter

If these guys improve with Zubac and we add 2 MAX FAs then we will be top 5 in the west for sure.

2 Max guys (two guys that want to come to LA):
1. PG
2. IT

Others: Cousins, Westbrook, Lopez, DeAndre Jordan.

[Spens1]

how is Julius's Randle's expectations not to improve his shot drastically. He has to develop a 3pt shot or else quiet frankly he's wasting his time also. I mean bulking up is all well and good, but he needs to extend his range to the point where he's shooting 35% from 3 in the next couple of seasons (and probably go to about 2-3 attempts per game), as for next season, he should be in on that Zubac-Nance Jr Challenge and trying to nail 3 pointers also.

Ditto on Russell, his decision making needs to improve alot, same with his perimeter D, both are musts, hopefully with him at S.G he gets to focus on a more natural game though. Same with Clarkson on defense, no way he should be a bad defender, he has shown signs to be a very good perimeter defender, but last year he was awful at it, his trade value has fallen off of a cliff also, him and Randle better improve drastically after both went backwards this last year.

Feel like Ingram should also be improving his shot, i mean he shot a lot better in the 2nd half of the season but it still needs to improve if we want him to be the man. Not to mention his FT shooting needs to improve to the point where he's at the high 70's, low 80's from the line. Obviously him bulking up is probably more important now but shooting needs to be the long term focus.

As for two max guys, easy:

1. Westbrook
2. P.G

[LakersSoul]

how is Julius's Randle's expectations not to improve his shot drastically. He has to develop a 3pt shot or else quiet frankly he's wasting his time also. I mean bulking up is all well and good, but he needs to extend his range to the point where he's shooting 35% from 3 in the next couple of seasons (and probably go to about 2-3 attempts per game), as for next season, he should be in on that Zubac-Nance Jr Challenge and trying to nail 3 pointers also.

Ditto on Russell, his decision making needs to improve alot, same with his perimeter D, both are musts, hopefully with him at S.G he gets to focus on a more natural game though. Same with Clarkson on defense, no way he should be a bad defender, he has shown signs to be a very good perimeter defender, but last year he was awful at it, his trade value has fallen off of a cliff also, him and Randle better improve drastically after both went backwards this last year.

Feel like Ingram should also be improving his shot, i mean he shot a lot better in the 2nd half of the season but it still needs to improve if we want him to be the man. Not to mention his FT shooting needs to improve to the point where he's at the high 70's, low 80's from the line. Obviously him bulking up is probably more important now but shooting needs to be the long term focus.

As for two max guys, easy:

1. Westbrook
2. P.G

Regarding Randle, his base is a double-double rebounding beast. He just need to be more consistent. If he can work on that right hand with rebounding, then he could be almost unstoppable and become a desperately needed player for the Lakers. I just hope with the wedding done, that he focuses this summer on the right hand and aggressiveness/persistence.

As for Westbrook, I dont know if he will leave Thunders anytime soon. Right now, I see PG and Isaiah Thomas as the two most possible candidates along with Cousins but I dont know how Cousins' mercurial personality would fit into the team. That said, Westbrook and PG would be a killer duo MAX players with our youngsters.

Summer of 2018 along with our youngsters progress!!

[LakersSoul]

Some interesting insight from Danny Ainge. After recording the best record in the Eastern Conference, this was his statement:

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/celtics/2017/05/bulpett_danny_ainge_acknowledges_significant_change_could_come_for_celtics
_______________

“But I feel like it doesn’t really matter what we’ve accomplished. If we’d lost Game 7 against the Wizards, I don’t feel any different than if we’re where we are today. I know that we’re good. I know that we’re not great. I know that we still have more to do, and, you know, that next step is by far the hardest.”

“Just because you’re one piece away doesn’t mean you can get it. And if you force yourself to get it, and if you force a deal or force yourself to get the second-best available or the third- or fourth-best available player at that position that you need, then it might not make you that much better or make you still not good enough, and you’re stuck. So, yeah, we’re not that far away, but we’re still a ways away."

“We have a lot of good players,” he said, “but we need some great ones.”

"As crazy as it sounds, there exists the possibility that a team coming off a conference finals appearance could see its roster altered by half."


_______________


Wow!!

Magic, Pelinka and the Lakers have a lot more work to do to jump us from second worst in the Western Conference into a playoff team then into a championship team. The planning has to be right with the right max contracts and right players to build a dynasty from draft or trade or FA signings. No more signing friggin Moz or Deng for silly contracts. Lets build this right in the next two years to get our ship to where the Cs are. Then we can work towards the final pieces to a championship team.

[Landsberger]

To go from the bottom to the very top takes a long time, luck and a consistent approach. Unfortunately, when you are the Lakers no one wants to wait and thus it will be very hard to have a consistent approach. We've been lucky with the protected picks however.

The Boston teams of the 90's were a dumpster fire for a while. They have some really bad luck in Bias and Lewis as well. It took them over 20 years to get back. That period included seasons with just 15 and 19 wins as well.

Ainge did pull off one of the biggest turnarounds ever however. From 24 to 66 wins and a chip in one season in 2008. That wasn't done waiting and seeing however. He swung for the fences and it worked.... well... at least for 3 years.

[danfantastk32]

To go from the bottom to the very top takes a long time, luck and a consistent approach.

This team has done pretty good job amassing young talent. We have 4 picks this year...Including the #2 pick. This team could have what??....about 10 guys under 25? With about 6-7 of them under 21.

Mostly....this front-office needs to have a PLAN. And it needs to move on opportunities that fit that plan. Not just reach for every shiny object that gets dangled in front of them. <----This is something I expect Rob to be pretty good at.

I don't agree that it has to take a long time. Yes.....it's not overnight. But way, way back in the days of Dwight and Nash, this team should have recognized where it was at, and it shoulda held it's youth...it should have worked out a sign and trade with Dwight, and it should have got something for Pau. I'd like to think there were a couple other pieces (Jordan Hill, etc) that we prob coulda squeezed 2nd rounders (maybe a late 1st here and there) for as well. We shoulda traded off all talent for youth/picks, and immediately gotten down into lottery territory, and we'd have been where we are now.....just 2-3 years earlier. It didn't have to be this drawn out, and miserable.

In my opinion...the year Aldridge clowned us was the year Jeanie should have axed Jim. He had lost Dwight. The following year he lost Carmello (thank god) and then took a desperate whiff at Dirk. <-----That was the summer I was completely done with the guy. But the year after, when Aldridge showed that Jim had no ability to adapt....but just dusted off the same exact set of slides he had presented to Carmello, it should have been more than abundantly clear to all, that the guy was completely clueless. Sadly we gave him another year.....and he did horrible horrible damage to the franchise, in a desperate bid to prove (to himself??) that he could sign SOMEONE. ANYONE. That much was clear. He was gonna sign SOMEONE...no matter what it took. And here we are.

So patience is an interesting topic with me. I have no patience when the car is driving the wrong way. And yet we sat through 5 of the most incompetent years imaginable. On one hand, I am completely willing to give the new management the time (2-3 years) it takes to kinda form up what they want. I also understand we have half our cap-space spent on borderline rubbish. Certainly nothing resembling starter-quality. And those contracts will be around for a bit. I get it.

But this team has managed to amass a ton of youth/picks as well (gotta give some credit to Jim there)....and while that's great, you can't keep/groom 9-10 promising players. Picks are one of the overvalued commodities in the league....and we got a bunch of them this year. We will have almost none next. The Iron is hot.

At the very least.....we should use some of those picks to move 1 of our contracts. You wanna sit Ingram, Zubac, Russell, for this years picks?? Me neither......so USE THEM.

[LakersSoul]

To go from the bottom to the very top takes a long time, luck and a consistent approach. Unfortunately, when you are the Lakers no one wants to wait and thus it will be very hard to have a consistent approach. We've been lucky with the protected picks however.

The Boston teams of the 90's were a dumpster fire for a while. They have some really bad luck in Bias and Lewis as well. It took them over 20 years to get back. That period included seasons with just 15 and 19 wins as well.

Ainge did pull off one of the biggest turnarounds ever however. From 24 to 66 wins and a chip in one season in 2008. That wasn't done waiting and seeing however. He swung for the fences and it worked.... well... at least for 3 years.

I hear you Landberger. Hard for fans to stomach a much longer drought but we have to stay patient. Magic and Pelinka need to make sure the LT plan is to build a championship team and not one that can JUST make the playoffs. Getting a team to make the playoff is achieveable but making that move from top 5 team to #1 is insanely difficult like Danny Ainge talks about above. We have to stay smart about picking our MAX players when and if they decide to come to LA. As crazy and far away as it seems and picking up 2 MAX players in 2018 might sound unbelieveable but we have to be smart as it might not be enough to dethrone GSW at the same time. Same problem that Celtics are having with Cavs right now.

The new CBA has made draft picks so much more valuable that we have to continue to add assets and not trade away these picks anymore until we find the proper players/roster that can get us to the top. The roster can now increase to 17 players with 2 way players to DLeague and signing max players (or even good players) are so risky for an organization right now. You might sign a good player but that might stunt the organization growth for the next 4-5 years and I am talking about players that are a notch or two higher than Moz and Deng. We have to continue to draft well and hope we can pick up a franchise player or two to control their undervalued assets. We have to keep adding assets and only move them only with the right roster players.

Not easy but Magic and Pelinka must get the organization looking at the big picture here.

BTW, we only have 2 draft picks this year. #2 and #28. I would love to buy 1-2 second rounders from Boston or Philly though.

[Landsberger]

Mostly....this front-office needs to have a PLAN.

Mike Tyson has a great quote about plans.....

My comment was that rarely to teams make the transition in a year or two... or even 5. The idea that we're the Lakers actually plays against it if one way. The leash is shorter by the owners and fans. This fan base expects to win more than any other this side of Boston and that pressure will make it hard for a long term plan to work.

Speaking of plans.... I seem to remember the 2011 plan.... then the 2012 plan... and then the 2013 plan.....

Not to say you can't plan your way back to the top but you need luck and time in almost every instance.

[DNP-Old]

To go from the bottom to the very top takes a long time, luck and a consistent approach.

This team has done pretty good job amassing young talent. We have 4 picks this year...Including the #2 pick. This team could have what??....about 10 guys under 25? With about 6-7 of them under 21.

Mostly....this front-office needs to have a PLAN. And it needs to move on opportunities that fit that plan. Not just reach for every shiny object that gets dangled in front of them. <----This is something I expect Rob to be pretty good at.

I don't agree that it has to take a long time. Yes.....it's not overnight. But way, way back in the days of Dwight and Nash, this team should have recognized where it was at, and it shoulda held it's youth...it should have worked out a sign and trade with Dwight, and it should have got something for Pau. I'd like to think there were a couple other pieces (Jordan Hill, etc) that we prob coulda squeezed 2nd rounders (maybe a late 1st here and there) for as well. We shoulda traded off all talent for youth/picks, and immediately gotten down into lottery territory, and we'd have been where we are now.....just 2-3 years earlier. It didn't have to be this drawn out, and miserable.

In my opinion...the year Aldridge clowned us was the year Jeanie should have axed Jim. He had lost Dwight. The following year he lost Carmello (thank god) and then took a desperate whiff at Dirk. <-----That was the summer I was completely done with the guy. But the year after, when Aldridge showed that Jim had no ability to adapt....but just dusted off the same exact set of slides he had presented to Carmello, it should have been more than abundantly clear to all, that the guy was completely clueless. Sadly we gave him another year.....and he did horrible horrible damage to the franchise, in a desperate bid to prove (to himself??) that he could sign SOMEONE. ANYONE. That much was clear. He was gonna sign SOMEONE...no matter what it took. And here we are.

So patience is an interesting topic with me. I have no patience when the car is driving the wrong way. And yet we sat through 5 of the most incompetent years imaginable. On one hand, I am completely willing to give the new management the time (2-3 years) it takes to kinda form up what they want. I also understand we have half our cap-space spent on borderline rubbish. Certainly nothing resembling starter-quality. And those contracts will be around for a bit. I get it.

But this team has managed to amass a ton of youth/picks as well (gotta give some credit to Jim there)....and while that's great, you can't keep/groom 9-10 promising players. Picks are one of the overvalued commodities in the league....and we got a bunch of them this year. We will have almost none next. The Iron is hot.

At the very least.....we should use some of those picks to move 1 of our contracts. You wanna sit Ingram, Zubac, Russell, for this years picks?? Me neither......so USE THEM.

If this is a typo, I apologizes as I do that often, but don't the Lakers have two picks (#2 and #28) this year.

[dAdo dA dEvil]

To go from the bottom to the very top takes a long time, luck and a consistent approach.

This team has done pretty good job amassing young talent. We have 4 picks this year...Including the #2 pick. This team could have what??....about 10 guys under 25? With about 6-7 of them under 21.

Mostly....this front-office needs to have a PLAN. And it needs to move on opportunities that fit that plan. Not just reach for every shiny object that gets dangled in front of them. <----This is something I expect Rob to be pretty good at.

I don't agree that it has to take a long time. Yes.....it's not overnight. But way, way back in the days of Dwight and Nash, this team should have recognized where it was at, and it shoulda held it's youth...it should have worked out a sign and trade with Dwight, and it should have got something for Pau. I'd like to think there were a couple other pieces (Jordan Hill, etc) that we prob coulda squeezed 2nd rounders (maybe a late 1st here and there) for as well. We shoulda traded off all talent for youth/picks, and immediately gotten down into lottery territory, and we'd have been where we are now.....just 2-3 years earlier. It didn't have to be this drawn out, and miserable.

In my opinion...the year Aldridge clowned us was the year Jeanie should have axed Jim. He had lost Dwight. The following year he lost Carmello (thank god) and then took a desperate whiff at Dirk. <-----That was the summer I was completely done with the guy. But the year after, when Aldridge showed that Jim had no ability to adapt....but just dusted off the same exact set of slides he had presented to Carmello, it should have been more than abundantly clear to all, that the guy was completely clueless. Sadly we gave him another year.....and he did horrible horrible damage to the franchise, in a desperate bid to prove (to himself??) that he could sign SOMEONE. ANYONE. That much was clear. He was gonna sign SOMEONE...no matter what it took. And here we are.

So patience is an interesting topic with me. I have no patience when the car is driving the wrong way. And yet we sat through 5 of the most incompetent years imaginable. On one hand, I am completely willing to give the new management the time (2-3 years) it takes to kinda form up what they want. I also understand we have half our cap-space spent on borderline rubbish. Certainly nothing resembling starter-quality. And those contracts will be around for a bit. I get it.

But this team has managed to amass a ton of youth/picks as well (gotta give some credit to Jim there)....and while that's great, you can't keep/groom 9-10 promising players. Picks are one of the overvalued commodities in the league....and we got a bunch of them this year. We will have almost none next. The Iron is hot.

At the very least.....we should use some of those picks to move 1 of our contracts. You wanna sit Ingram, Zubac, Russell, for this years picks?? Me neither......so USE THEM.

If this is a typo, I apologizes as I do that often, but don't the Lakers have two picks (#2 and #28) this year.

Yep only 2 IIRC. By keeping the top 3 protected pick we lose the 2 second round picks. But wait, I think we still have 2 rounders that we got along with Calderon? I'm not sure what year.

[larry14r]

This team has done pretty good job amassing young talent. We have 4 picks this year...Including the #2 pick. This team could have what??....about 10 guys under 25? With about 6-7 of them under 21.

Mostly....this front-office needs to have a PLAN. And it needs to move on opportunities that fit that plan. Not just reach for every shiny object that gets dangled in front of them. <----This is something I expect Rob to be pretty good at.

I don't agree that it has to take a long time. Yes.....it's not overnight. But way, way back in the days of Dwight and Nash, this team should have recognized where it was at, and it shoulda held it's youth...it should have worked out a sign and trade with Dwight, and it should have got something for Pau. I'd like to think there were a couple other pieces (Jordan Hill, etc) that we prob coulda squeezed 2nd rounders (maybe a late 1st here and there) for as well. We shoulda traded off all talent for youth/picks, and immediately gotten down into lottery territory, and we'd have been where we are now.....just 2-3 years earlier. It didn't have to be this drawn out, and miserable.

In my opinion...the year Aldridge clowned us was the year Jeanie should have axed Jim. He had lost Dwight. The following year he lost Carmello (thank god) and then took a desperate whiff at Dirk. <-----That was the summer I was completely done with the guy. But the year after, when Aldridge showed that Jim had no ability to adapt....but just dusted off the same exact set of slides he had presented to Carmello, it should have been more than abundantly clear to all, that the guy was completely clueless. Sadly we gave him another year.....and he did horrible horrible damage to the franchise, in a desperate bid to prove (to himself??) that he could sign SOMEONE. ANYONE. That much was clear. He was gonna sign SOMEONE...no matter what it took. And here we are.

So patience is an interesting topic with me. I have no patience when the car is driving the wrong way. And yet we sat through 5 of the most incompetent years imaginable. On one hand, I am completely willing to give the new management the time (2-3 years) it takes to kinda form up what they want. I also understand we have half our cap-space spent on borderline rubbish. Certainly nothing resembling starter-quality. And those contracts will be around for a bit. I get it.

But this team has managed to amass a ton of youth/picks as well (gotta give some credit to Jim there)....and while that's great, you can't keep/groom 9-10 promising players. Picks are one of the overvalued commodities in the league....and we got a bunch of them this year. We will have almost none next. The Iron is hot.

At the very least.....we should use some of those picks to move 1 of our contracts. You wanna sit Ingram, Zubac, Russell, for this years picks?? Me neither......so USE THEM.

If this is a typo, I apologizes as I do that often, but don't the Lakers have two picks (#2 and #28) this year.

Yep only 2 IIRC. By keeping the top 3 protected pick we lose the 2 second round picks. But wait, I think we still have 2 rounders that we got along with Calderon? I'm not sure what year.

one in 2018, and the other in 2019.

[danfantastk32]

Oh...thought we had the calderon pick this year. that would make 3. I shoulda known we'd lose our own 2nd-rounder since we kept our lotto pick.

Well sh**...that's not so good. I suppose we can still use the Calderon pick(s) as trade chips. Next year we lose both our first and our second round. I'll be glad when all this crap is past us.

[LakersLegacy]

What Magic asked the players to improve upon this summer:

1. Nance: Jump shot from 12-15 range and from 3 pointer
2. Randle: Work on his right hand and finish at the rim
3. BI: Get stronger and add strength to finish at rim and get +1s
4. Clarkson: Improve ball handling and DEFENSE!
5. Dlo: Become a leader. Better decisions and DEFENSE!

Read on Twitter

If these guys improve with Zubac and we add 2 MAX FAs then we will be top 5 in the west for sure.

2 Max guys (two guys that want to come to LA):
1. PG
2. IT

Others: Cousins, Westbrook, Lopez, DeAndre Jordan.

Awesome post. Any way to make a pyramid w Zubac and also add #2 player.

We have 7 young guys to build around. We need to add 2 all-stars and then yes we can!

[RingsDontLie]

Hmmm. I do wonder if we can make some small moves to get us playoff bound next season. But probably no way to cheat the process besides getting George in 2019.