Los Angeles Lakers: 5 takeaways from the 2017-18 NBA season

1. The Lakers are built for long-term success

All of this positive momentum garnered from hitting on all of their draft class to other players maturing to having the right coach at the helm is building toward the Los Angeles Lakers having an extremely bright product for the future with a chance to expedite their contending window thanks to a big free agency summer coming up.

It’s no secret that Paul George is a free agent this summer, is a local kid from southern California and has expressed interest in joining the Lakers (or Los Angeles Clippers, to be fair). The Lakers also happen to have a boat load of cap space ready to splash out, especially given the lack of cap space teams have throughout the NBA.

With Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka at the helm, there’s plenty of confidence they won’t overspend and throw money at players well above their price range. This means future cap flexibility is being prioritized and the Lakers are growing into a free agency destination again.

Even if the Lakers fail to land PG-13 or any big free agents and run back their current team with Randle being locked up long-term, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope coming back on another short-term contract, they should be a competitive team that is in the playoff hunt all season.

Next: 2017-18 Week 26 NBA Power Rankings

If the Lakers bring Randle back, they move forward with a core of Randle, Lonzo, Kuzma, Ingram and Hart. That’s a group of five legit NBA players that fit together seamlessly, are under 23 years old and (outside of Randle) are on rookie contracts for multiple seasons. That’s an impressive group of talent to partner with cap space that gives the Los Angeles Lakers one of the brightest future outlooks in the league.