Lakers Drafted 13 Players in Past 5 Years (Only 1 Extension Given)

loseyourname · Star Player Joined: 01 Aug 2004 Posts: 1531

Honestly, I have no problem with this. The biggest problem running an NBA franchise in the salary cap era is guys hit that first extension and James Harden and Devin Booker end up making the same money and taking up the same percentage of your cap. The team that ends up with Devin Booker as its centerpiece is never going to win anything. The upside is maybe none of these guys actually end up getting max contracts, but I don't think any of them will be worth the contracts they get. They're great to have when they're making rookie scale. LeBron and AD are both clearly worth their contracts.

Not to say the player management has been perfect. Keep Randle and they're probably able to trade him as part of the AD deal and hold on to more future draft picks at least, possibly one of Lonzo or Ingram.

It's not like this is easy. You can look at a lot of teams that have done basically everything right, Boston, Philly, Portland, Utah, even Houston, and they're likely going to end up with 0 championships combined to show for it. It takes some guts to admit you just don't have the pieces and keep blowing it up until you do.

KindCrippler2000 · Franchise Player Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 15821

Lack of homegrown players is concerning. Someone calculated the percentage of homegrown players on each championship team, and the average came to around 50% total, 40% since 2000: https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/c1n6qh/oc_historical_percentage_of_homegrown_players_on/

I get what the Lakers are doing, but this has the possibility to backfire and screw us over if one of AD or Lebron go down. I guess one counter argument to this is that we weren't winning with BI, Zo, Hart, regardless. They also have injury histories that could backfire on the Pelicans.

It's a precarious situation, but I absolutely know one thing for certain: we're in the load management era. Players are not as durable as they were 15-20 years ago. Kawhi barely made it through the finals, and he was managed as optimally as he could have by the Raptors. We need to do the same for Lebron and AD. Keep them healthy for the long haul.

SuperboyReformed · Star Player Joined: 07 Oct 2012 Posts: 4083

never underestimate the impact of that veto. we are so lucky to have AD right now.

Super Mega Team · Star Player Joined: 25 Jul 2008 Posts: 3877

hype · Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 5:45 pm Post subject:

As much as I loved our young core the Lakers are about championships and having the best players in the NBA in Purple & Gold. This current trade was def. a huge gamble and there is no winner or loser yet and unless we land Kawhi it will continue tbd for a year or two to see if we can get another Championship while also seeing what those traded players fully develop into.

This trade could completely blow up in our face or give us our next dynasty.

You look at other teams that were considered to have the better upside then the Lakers and now with this trade and a solid free agency we suddenly leap frog them all. Rob & the Lakers took a huge gamble but regardless we're in dramatically better shape then at least 90% of the league right now.

Hammett · Star Player Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Posts: 9455

They’re all borderline all-stars. In an era where you need “Big 3” to win. They had to go, sorry.
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Lakers. Built different.