The bright lights. Roll camera, action! Hoist up the trophy the Los Angeles Lakers are 17 time NBA Champions. All these features seem like a distant memory of Tinseltown being a powerhouse for NBA basketball.
It’s been seven years since the Lakers have won a NBA Championship. Though it may be hard for Lakers fans to hear, they will have to wait a lot longer to see another one. The league is built differently than it was seven years ago. Team’s like the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers have utilized the “Super Team” model to compete for a ring. The Lakers have tried to use this model the past couple of seasons to lure in top free agents like Lebron James, Carmelo Anthony and DeMar Derozen. Though the Lakers offered gobs of money to these players and the chance to play with Kobe Bryant, top free agents turned down all offers to find a better place to win.
Let’s face it the Lakers have been one of the most dysfunctional franchises in the league aside from the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks. Since 2011 the team has gone through five head coaches with a combined win/loss record of (177-299). If this performance isn’t keeping away top free agents, than what is?
The Lakers have had several top draft picks due to their poor performance in recent years. So shouldn’t they be turning a corner to set a winning culture? The picks the Lakers have acquired have hardly helped them on the basketball court. In 2014 they selected Julius Randle with the seventh overall pick who ended up having season ending knee surgery within the first month of the season.
Over the past two seasons they’ve landed the number two pick in the draft selecting D’Angelo Russell in 2015 and Brandon Ingram in 2016. Russell has been more active off the court than on it, by stirring up controversy in the locker room with his teammate’s personal lives. Ingram shows a lot of promise, but still has a ton of progress to be made before he’s the star the organization is hoping him to be. For a third consecutive year the Lakers landed the number two pick in the draft and are likely to select guard Lonzo Ball from UCLA. The young phenom has talent, however his father Lavar has proved to be nothing but a distraction off the court.
It’s time the Lakers stop throwing barrels of cash at free agents like Timofey Mozgov and Lou Williams. The reason why they took the contract in the first place, is they weren’t being offered it elsewhere. Nowadays players want to win a ring more than collecting a large paycheck. Kevin Durant is taking a pay cut to keep the same Warriors team in tact to win another championship. Lebron James has been using the same strategy for years in order to surround himself with other talented players.
NBA rumor humor reached a new high yesterday when talk began to surface that Lebron James will leave to join the Lakers because of the recent firing of GM David Griffin. People will believe anything if it sounds crazy enough. But seriously think about it for a moment. Why on earth would Lebron play for a team that has to compete in the same conference as the San Antonio Spurs, Rockets and Warriors to just get into the NBA Finals?
It’s been shown players are looking to take an easier route to contend for a championship. Based on the evidence there is no road more challenging to contend for a championship than playing with the Los Angeles Lakers.
thesportssourcesite 