The last two seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers have been horrid no matter how you cut it, honestly you could say the last three seasons if you count the initial Howard, Gasol, Nash and Bryant pairing that landed the Lakers bounced in the first round by the Spurs.
Last season after the first time in the lottery in years the Lakers drafted Kentucky forward Julius Randle, a guy a lot of experts dubbed Zach Randolph 2.o which is a good comparison and Randle can turn into a Randolph type player the Lakers will be lucky. With the Lakers landing Randle there was hope he would be able to get his feet wet with expectations not high at all with the way this team was constructed. We all knew that Kobe would have to shoot until his body broke down and it eventually did has he tore his shoulder up and missed about half of the season. Randle suffered a broken leg in the first game of the season so that plan or expectation was scrapped, but with the injury to Bryant it allowed second round pick Jordan Clarkson more playing time. Clarkson took advantage and seems to be apart of the new foundation of the Lakers building blocks.
The Lakers had the fourth worse record in the NBA had a protected top 5 pick, so if they would’ve gotten the sixth pick or higher the Suns would’ve received the pick. So all of that hard work being trash would’ve been for nothing. Sometimes being bad can turn out good as they landed the second pick in the 2015 draft. Now they will have their pick of either Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell, Emmanuel Mudiay or Justice Winslow. We all know it will be a big man so if Towns goes one, Okafor will be in LA or vice versa.
Who wouldn’t like a lineup of Towns/Okafor, Randle, whomever, Bryant and Clarkson? The Lakers have a lot of cap space also so there is hope in Lakerland. I know they won’t compete for a championship next year, but the after Bryant era is looking promising now.
