Enduring one of the worst seasons in Lakers history finally paid off last Tuesday for the fan base, as they left the draft with one of the few prospects with star potential on their roster. With Luke Walton taking the reigns as head coach, and the now abundant youth talent in Los Angeles, might the Lakers be competing sooner than later?
The Los Angeles Lakers won 17 basketball games in the 2015-16 season, and, subsequently, lost 65 games. It was the worst season in the storied history of the franchise and the third straight dismal year for a team that had only missed the playoffs once in the 21st century before this drought.
Suffering through these last three years surely hasn’t been easy for Lakers fans (although the rest of the NBA likely doesn’t feel too sympathetic). They have been a non-factor in free agency, where they had always been in the conversation for every heavyweight player on the move in the past.
Instead, the Lakers have taken the longer route to returning to the top of basketball, the draft. Three awful seasons have resulted in three high draft picks, including the second overall pick the last two seasons, and they have used those picks to reload the team with talented young players.
In 2014, the Lakers used the No. 7 pick to select Julius Randle, a power forward from Kentucky. Randle largely missed out on his rookie season after breaking his leg in his first game, so last year was really his first chance to show L.A. what he brings to the table. He was remarkably healthy, playing in 81 of 82 games, in which he concluded a solid season of double-double play, averaging 11.3 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. Those are strong numbers for a player essentially in his first year, but Randle has far to go. For a player who largely got his baskets around the hoop, his 42.9 percent from the field is very underwhelming. He shot 53.3 percent from less than five feet away, but just stepping out to the five-to-nine-foot range, his field goal percentage plummeted to 34.8 percent. Randle is talented, but he needs to improve his range to function in a top-level lineup.
In 2015, the Lakers used the No. 2 pick, their highest pick since using the top pick on James Worthy in 1982, to take D’Angelo Russell out of Ohio State. Russell electrified the NCAA with his playmaking abilities, and showed signs of that ability in the NBA during his tumultuous first season. Last season’s coach, Byron Scott, was inconsistent with playing Russell, and made a few questionable decisions with him in the early stages of the season. However, the 6-5 point guard’s minutes and responsibilities increased as the year went on, and he took advantage of it. D’Angelo Russell is also not close to being a finished product, but his talents should thrive now that he has escaped from the tutelage of Byron Scott.
And in 2016, a little less than a week ago, the Lakers used the No. 2 pick to take Brandon Ingram out of Duke. Winning the second pick in the Draft Lottery was hugely important for the Lakers, first of all because any pick lower than No. 3 would send their pick to Philadelphia, but also because there was a consensus top-two in this draft: Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram.
It was a foregone conclusion Simmons and Ingram would go first and second, so Los Angeles simply had to wait to see which one Philly took and phone in they’d take the other. Simmons emerged as the Sixers’ pick a couple days before the draft, and not much later the likes of Woj and other credible sources cited Ingram would go to the Lakers.
There was no surprise when Ingram’s name was the second to be called on draft night, but there is plenty of reason to be excited for him in Laker-land.
My favorite part of Ingram is his versatility, a factor that has become more and more important in today’s NBA. Ingram seriously needs to add weight and strength to his very slender frame, but his height and absurd length can enable him to be a strong defender against a variety of wings and defenders. Offensively, he is a strong outside shooter, meaning he can add crucial spacing to a Lakers lineup that players like Randle and guard Jordan Clarkson tend to kill with their poor shooting.
With Simmons, the argument could be made that he wouldn’t fit very well with some teams. Ingram, on the other hand, could seemingly be plugged into any team in the league and fit seamlessly. It is unfair to pigeon-hole Simmons into a certain style before he plays a minute in the NBA, but it would appear teams need to be built around him to be successful, whereas Ingram can excel in a variety of situations.
That gives L.A. flexibility, as he provides spacing with Clarkson and Randle, but also an outlet for Russell to find in transition and in the half-court offense. Brandon Ingram may struggle initially due to his frame, but expect him to emerge as a leader and a vital weapon for the Lakers quickly.
And Ingram wasn’t the only player the Lakers added Tuesday. With the 32nd pick, Los Angeles took the hulking Ivica Zubac, a center from Croatia. Zubac is only 19 years old and is a terrifying 7-1, 265 pounds while boasting a 7-4 wingspan. Despite his size and youth, Zubac displayed a variety of offensive moves around the basket in his limited time in Croatia, and he is quite fluid and mobile for a player of his size.
Perhaps the best part of Zubac’s story is how big of a fan of the Lakers he is. As this report from Lakers Nation details, Zubac has been a massive fan his whole life, even bursting into tears as he watched Kobe Bryant score 60 in his final game. Being a fan of a team by no means ensures he will succeed under the lights of the Staples Center, but the fans that aren’t as talented at basketball as Zubac will surely appreciate knowing he’d rather be nowhere else than wearing the purple and gold.
So, are the Lakers ready to compete in the West? The short answer is no, not yet.
The longer answer is the Lakers now have an extremely talented nucleus of core players, but all of those players still have a couple years left in their development before any of them look like finished products.
But they could still put together quality seasons soon. Luke Walton is now the head coach, and while it can be argued Golden State would’ve succeeded with a baby as head coach in Steve Kerr’s absence, Walton will surely bring more new life and expertise to the team than whatever Byron Scott had to offer.
And while the Lakers haven’t been much of a factor in free agency, eventually the talent they are amassing and the prospect of playing in L.A. will once again persuade top talent to them. Perhaps a realistic target this offseason could be Hassan Whiteside, the talented but controversial center who would fill the gaping hole the Lakers have at the center position right now.
I don’t expect the Los Angeles Lakers to be particularly good this year, but they will certainly be fun to watch, and it appears to be only a matter of time before the rest of us are back to watching the big-market team compete on the biggest stages of the NBA.
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