Los Angeles Lakers: Best Move They Did, Didn’t Make
The Los Angeles Lakers entered the offseason with draft picks and cap space, and exited with a variety of new faces both young and old. What was their best move of the offseason? Where did they make a mistake?
The weight of expectations weighs heavily on the shoulders of every NBA executive, from owners to general managers to video scouts. As a famous coach once said, “you play to win the game” and that applies to basketball as to every other sport.
But the burden is not equal, and teams in the biggest markets have even greater pressure to succeed.
The Los Angeles Lakers are currently stumbling under that weight, putting together the worst three-year stretch in franchise history. The purple and gold are used to runs at the title, not tanking to hold onto a protected pick.
Ownership itself is cracking under the pressure, and owner Jim Buss may be on a timer to show results before his sister Jeanie takes over.
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With the clock ticking and fans waiting for improvement, the Lakers went into the offseason and spent money on a variety of players. What was the best move of their offseason? And where did the Lakers misstep?
Best Move They Made: Drafting Brandon Ingram
In the months between the end of the college basketball season and the NBA draft, two players stood above the rest among the pool of prospects: Ben Simmons, the draft’s forerunner from wire to wire, and Brandon Ingram.
Armed with the second pick in the draft, the Lakers’ decision should have been simple.
Loathe to allow anything to be easy, Los Angeles seriously considered a number of different options with their pick. Trading it and other young pieces for a proven veteran may not have been a disaster, but the franchise’s timetable would be slow even with a veteran star.
A player such as Jimmy Butler or DeMarcus Cousins would help the Lakers add wins, but not enough to seriously contend. The path for Los Angeles to be a great team involves developing the young players on the roster and seeing two or three of them emerge as standout players.
They were right to stand pat and retain the pick.
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Even that option left room to misstep. Los Angeles considered drafting a different player second overall than Ingram. Doing due diligence on a draft selection is certainly the right move, but the mindset was still off.
The Lakers were said to be seriously considering Buddy Hield with the second pick over Ingram.
Whether Hield turns out to be a quality rotation player or not, at 22 years old he is older than the Lakers’ core.
His upside is mostly realized already, while a player such as Ingram has a sky-high ceiling. Hield would be the pick for an established team looking to fill a role; Ingram needed to be the pick for a rudderless team seeking a chance at a star.
In the end the Lakers did select Brandon Ingram, and they made the right move in doing so. Long and athletic, Ingram brings elite potential on offense and defense.
If developed correctly, he could be a two-way player who blossoms into a star — comparisons to Kevin Durant are rampant because of his frame, but someone such as Paul George is a reasonable comparison as well.
By the time Adam Silver announced that the Lakers were on the clock, they had the right mindset to build for a future Lakers team and not to chase wins in 2017. Just one week later that mindset was gone, and Los Angeles hit the ground running in free agency.
Best Move They Didn’t Make: Allowing The Market To Set
When free agency opens on July 1, two sorts of deals happen right away. On one hand, teams make huge offers to max-level players, hoping to secure their services. With a cap on maximum contracts, there is often less negotiation to happen with the top tier of players.
On the other hand are teams making bargain deals to players, who weigh the chance for more money against the possibility no one offers them more elsewhere and they are stuck taking less.
After a few days, free agency normalizes and the bulk of contracts are handed out as the market sets itself.
The Los Angeles Lakers did not get the memo on how free agency works. Having been spurned by major free agents the last few seasons, the Lakers’ front office decided to dive into the fray and hand out money quickly.
The problem is that they targeted neither potential bargains nor max-level players.
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Instead they gave major contracts to aging support players. Timofey Mozgov was one of the very first contracts announced, signed to a four-year, $64 million contract.
After serving as a major piece in Cleveland’s first run to the NBA Finals, last season he took a major step back, hampered by injuries and poor play until he was effectively pulled from the rotation.
The Lakers are putting money on Mozgov returning to form. This is a possible, if unlikely outcome for the Lakers to bet on, and they bet big. Even if Mozgov had played well last season he may not have been worth $16 million per season.
Already 30 years old, Los Angeles is hoping Mozgov not only rebounds, but then stays good long enough for the young talent around him to grow enough that Mozgov’s contributions help in a meaningful way.
An extra win or two now does the team little good. Unfortunately that minute contribution is what Los Angeles seems to have paid for.
Luol Deng made even more money from the Lakers, signing for $72 million over four seasons. He has a more recent track record of success, providing versatile play at both ends of the court last season for the Miami Heat.
While Mozgov’s market even two days later would have been more tepid, Deng could have reasonably expected more than $15 million per season.
The problem with Deng’s contract is years, not dollars. Again the Lakers locked themselves into a four-year deal, which will be paying the forward more than $18 million during his age-35 season.
Even if Deng wasn’t injury-prone and worn down from so many minutes in Chicago that would be a risky proposition.
Both players would have been hard-pressed to find that money elsewhere on the market. Los Angeles overpaid and paid early, locking themselves into major commitments to both players If their team was ready to contend this season, overpaying for veteran contributors would have been more reasonable.
But neither Deng nor Mozgov will be helping a good team for at least a couple of seasons, when they will be older and most likely less effective.
They are overpaying for players who will only hurt their draft pick, and locking them into contracts that will pay them no matter how they age in three and four years. The upside is basically nonexistent for Los Angeles.
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The Lakers drafted for the future and then spent money for the present. This warring management plan shows that a franchise used to winning has a long way to go before new banners are hung from the rafters.