The Lakers: Bound for mediocrity for the next few seasons?

[CodyB_]

The Lakers are at the tail end of 20 year run where they won 5 championships while housing some of the greatest players of all time in Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Much has been said about ‘putting the right pieces around Kobe’ so this team can make a final run, but I think the resigning of Kobe to a mammoth like contract is more of a golden handshake and is the ‘Swan-Song’ as such for the Kobe/Shaq Laker Era.

Sometimes you need to let a flame burn out, rather than keep it alight and here are some factors that Mitch Kupchak will certainly be taking into consideration moving forward.


The players that will turn the Lakers into a championship team are locked up- for now

Many names are being touted as possible future Lakers, players who put up excellent statistics but have glaring gaps in their game. Carmelo, KLove and Eric Bledsoe. If the Lakers bide their time, they may have an opportunity to snag a serious game changer down the line like Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, Paul George or Marc Gasol (the most underrated player in the league).

Kobe’s best days are behind him

Kobe might come back this season and still put up 25, 5 and 5, though that is looking less and less likely. Being Kobe, this guy will himself to on court success as long as he can physically do so, but his play will not be conducive to winning basketball. Those days are gone. His contract also eats up a large portion of the Lakers salary cap.

The team is profitable – Rings or not

In fact, with no Kobe and no winning basketball the Lakers were still, and by a massive margin, the most profitable team in the NBA. If Kobe plays another several seasons and the team scraps together a respectable record then the Lakers will have the opportunity to amass $600 million dollars in pre-tax / pre revenue-sharing profit, which is more than what most teams are worth.

The organization is in a time of uncertainty

Since the passing of Dr. Jerry Buss there has been no visible signs of a power struggle but there certainly are different visions. Several seasons of high return is likely to get all Buss children on the same page- The Lakers need to be relevant into the future.

The team has a lot of potential role players once the team is a contender again

I couldn’t think of any player on this team that has superstar potential. Nick Young, Ed Davis, Jordan Hill and Julius Randle will never be top 10 guys in the league but neither are they are bench fodder. With the trend amongst contracts going into the future, I doubt neither of these guys are going to command more then $5M per year going into the future. Having talent on the roster is going to put the Lakers in a favourable position in catching the ‘big fish’.

Mitch Kupchak is going to play it cool. He knows that he is not in an ideal position to build a contender and that he may not be until Kobe Bryant retires. In the mean time, as long as he can keep a competitive team on the floor, keep his flagship player healthy then the Lakers will be extremely profitable into the next few seasons. This will give him a chance to gage the free agent market and eventually the opportunity will come to land a franchise cornerstone and not just a name, with the Buss family blessing.

As a Laker fan, I would happily eat my hat if I am wrong but I foresee the lack of a big move, the massive Kobe extension and the slow but sure amassing of mediocre players as a deliberate move to keep the Lakers profitable into the next couple of seasons.

In three years time, Kobe’s contract would have ended, there would have been sufficient evaluation of Byron Scott as a coach and the Lakers will have little if any cap burden. This will be one of the leagues most stories franchises, with a pile of cash, pedigree and vacancy for ‘Alpha Dog’. Most importantly, it will sever the ties and truly signify the new era. Free agents are not going to be doubtful of being in Kobe’s shadow, they’ll be confident in knowing that they have the keys.

[hermes]

they are trying to steer a rudder-less ship in multiple directions at once and its going to result in a lot of spinning tires

might not get very far (in either direction) in the next couple seasons but the hope is that it doesn't sink

[Dr Aki]

they are trying to steer a rudder-less ship in multiple directions at once and its going to result in a lot of spinning tires

might not get very far (in either direction) in the next couple seasons but the hope is that it doesn't sink

i wouldn't say rudderless, i can see what the FO are trying to do

essentially try to make playoffs, while reloading on youth with a potential future trajectory of championships

it is a bit early to be making predictions though but here's a graph i mocked up for the sake of it that might illustrate where i think the FO thinks we're at and what the FO is trying to plot the lakers future

[politm]

Let's not kid ourselves. Kobe - Carmelo - Pau, Bledsoe - Kobe - Pau or Kobe - Love - Pau aren't bound to win anything. Oh, and this assuming Pau takes a paycut to remain here.

The best thing that ever happened this summer is Melo not coming here. Well, at least not with that salary...

[ChokeFasncists]

It'd be interesting what any form of Linsanity could do.

[LApwnd]

its medicore without long term commits....could be worse we could be medicore/threadmill like the Atl hawks with JJ/Smith/Horford who were perenial 2nd rd losers with long term contracts.

[AcecardZ]

If this team does fall completely flat it's not the worst thing in the world. Historically the lottery has been very kind to us.

Re: posted comment above about Carmelo. I'm inclined to agree that landing Carmelo would have been fool'a gold. He's a great scorer but he's never going to elevate his overall game to the next level needed to be a leader on a championship contender. Paying him the max for five years would have been a huge setback for us. Good luck with that NY... Lol

[myersia]

Another negative thread. Make it stop!!!!!!

[chefy]

wanted us to go all out this off season and build the best possible team that we can rather than trying to "rebuild".

anyway, i just hope everyone is 100% healthy this coming season. and also the buss siblings should let mitch do his job! i was pro melo but offering him our entire cap space and trying to sign him for 5 years? awful. the young and hill signings were mediocre signings too. deng, thomas, and stephenson all got similar contracts to hill's and these players are all better than him. bazemore got signed for 2/year, davis for 1/year, boozer for 3/year, johnson 1/year, henry for the minimum. no way you can tell me that hill or young is $8 or $4 million/4 years better than these players. anyway enough with the negativity, like i said i just hope everyone can stay healthy for the sake of kobe's final years here.

[SlimShady83]

Another negative thread. Make it stop!!!!!!

I just wasted a couple minutes reading that crap. Should of known better from the title?

A lot of Laker fans need to learn to stay positive and have some faith in there team - Heck every fan needs that in there team

Chill out Laker fans, let the other teams start winning for a little bit and give them hope, while LA's FO, will build championship team

[13th Man]

This is a feel-out year for the young guys, unfortunately the rebuilding truly starts when Nash and maybe Kobe retires.

[Marionettetc]

20 year run? Some of yaII need to get a grip, after magic and the cap retired we did nothing in the 90's even with Shaq and a young Kobe later.

The best thing about being a bad team is maybe we will get rid of some of the whining scrubs that hang around this board.

I remember when i was a college student, diligently downloading torrents of games (before the league pass was in my area), watching trash like tierre brown, laron profit, brian cook, Ira newble get significant minutes, watching Kobe go supernova with only one legit starter on his team (Odom) and later getting bounced out of the playoffs until we got Pau.

So let's not act like the Lakers "Twenty year run of tyranny" is coming to an end all of a sudden. We don't have the best team in the league, but I thought being a fan meant supporting your team through feast and famine? Or does it only mean complaining if we're not the number 1 seed and taking the championship.

[Kilroy]

I'm not even sure what any of this means anymore...

We're not going to win any championship this season, but as long as we have some cap flexibility, you never know what'll happen in subsequent seasons...

There are a lot of interesting storylines this season to keep us interested... Kobe, Nash, Randle, Davis, Boozer, Lin, Scott... It's going to be an interesting season...

Beyond that, it's impossible to tell.

So let's stop with all the doom and gloom prognostication...

As the great Oddball once said:

Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?