The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most storied franchises in all of sport. They have a long standing tradition of producing championship caliber teams and NBA legends. The purple and gold is synonymous with NBA success and the fans in Los Angeles expect nothing less from their revered Lakers.
Unfortunately the legacy that is, has been and will continue to, take a bit of a beating as the on court talent is not sufficient to keep pace in the über-competitive Western Conference.
Despite boasting a lineup that features two, albeit aging, Hall of Fame players in Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash the Lakers don't figure to be in the discussion come playoff time.
This off season was supposed to be one filled with promise and hope as the Lakers had some salary cap dollars to spend and they figured to have some options when it came to keeping or moving Pau Gasol. As it turned out the bigger named free agents spurned the Lakers and Gasol bolted on his own accord for Chicago.
This left the Lakers scrambling to fill roster spots and desperate not to lose any more bodies. In a knee-jerk reaction they went ahead and signed Jordan Hill to an inflated two year $18 million deal with the second year coming with the team option. The Lakers then turned around and threw similarly ridiculous money at Nick Young as he signed a four year $21.5 million deal.
The Lakers kept the spending spree going as they agreed to a trade with the Houston Rockets that saw them acquire Jeremy Lin as well as a first and second-round draft pick. This was nothing more than a salary dump by the Rockets as they were desperate to unload the uncap friendly contract that was Lin’s. For the Lakers this was a move to shore up their back court and the uncertainty that comes along with Nash’s health; however, prior to Lin the Lakers had Kendall Marshall who was equally capable of playing point. Now Marshall was placed on waivers and there is absolutely no way he clears through, which effectively gives the Lakers no chance at reacquiring his services.
During this mayhem the Lakers officially lost out on Carmelo Anthony and Pau Gasol. The loss of Gasol stung the Lakers but it had to have been expected. In a strange twist of fate, the Bulls acquired Gasol and then amnestied Carlos Boozer who was then bought by the Lakers for $3.25 million.
The Lake Show then went out and signed Wesley Johnson, Ryan Kelly and Xavier Henry to fairly minimum level deals in order to fill out the roster. Then they added Ed Davis on a fairly reasonable two year deal.
With this the Lakers have pretty much filled out their roster as they have only a couple million dollars left to spend if they so choose, but for all intensive purposes there can’t be anything earth shattering in terms of roster moves or acquisitions.
What has been overlooked during this acquisition phase for the Lakers is that they failed to get a new head coach. Normally a coach is involved in the personnel decisions that go into constructing a roster and determining which free-agents who fit the system. As it stands now the incumbent coach of the Lakers is inheriting a pre-set roster of aging veterans and role players who are being handsomely paid for their services.
With this backwards approach to constructing a team the Lakers are not only setting their franchise up for failure but they are serving up their coach as a sacrificial lamb. Even with a healthy Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash and an effective Boozer paired with Julius Randle, the Lakers are not a playoff team. Bryant could have a monster year, lead the league in scoring, be an MVP favorite and the Lakers still wouldn’t make the postseason.
It is a sad state of affairs for Laker fans. Not only are they watching the slow demise of their franchise but they must also watch the Clippers rise through the NBA power rankings and become potential champions. A bitter pill to swallow would surely be for a championship banner to be hung in the Staple Center, only to have it belong to the rival Clippers and not the beloved Lakers.