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To say that free agency has not been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers would be a massive understatement. Not only have they missed on all of their main targets, but criticism has arisen regarding the sales pitch of the front office, with terms like "out of touch" orbiting the Buss family.
The Lakers plan is obvious: swing for the fences on stars, otherwise preserve cap space for the future.
While this strategy does have some merit, the reality is that times have changed. The Lakers used to be nearly assured that stars would want to come to the LA market, where they were greeted by sunshine, fame, and an open checkbook. However, under the new collective...
I know I know...how the heck are all these FAs signing contracts and we are on the outside looking in for the second consecutive year...Howard, Melo and now Aldridge...
1. Superstars rarely change teams...they usually stay where they are or get tired of losing and ask for a trade. Not a lot of them switch teams in FAs, it is what it is because nobody can offer them the same dough as their respective team.
When you move, its either because of more money or better chance at winning. Given the fact that we cannot offer more than max, which is what other teams also offer, it comes down to winning. And its not easy to convince a superstar on the fence of 30 to come to a team, that has won just 21 games last season, it just isn't. We cannot offer more money and we cannot offer more winning chances...whether this guy liked our presentation or that guy loved the analytics etc. is just bla bla...fact is, if you have a winning team, people want to join you and vice versa.
In the weeks leading up to the draft it appeared to be a done deal that the Los Angeles Lakers would select Duke big man Jahlil Okafor to be their center of the future. Had they gone that route LA would find themselves in need of a guard to backup Jordan Clarkson and, perhaps more importantly, a small forward to mercifully replace Wesley Johnson in the starting lineup.
Mitch Kupchak opted to throw everyone (including a saddened Okafor) a curve ball by selecting passing prodigy D'Angelo Russell, figuring that he and Clarkson could be a deadly combination in the Lakers back court for the next decade. One of the fortuitous ripple effects of the Russell pick is that it allows Kobe Bryant to...
