Los Angeles Lakers: One optional route to build a championship team

If the Los Angeles Lakers need another route to build a contending team, they should consider this one.

Taking the position that nothing less than the Los Angeles Lakers fielding a team that actually has a shot at winning a title next season is acceptable, which I have taken,  has led to some thinging. Many different scenarios have floated through my purple and gold, some may say barely functional, brain over the past weeks since the draft order was announced.

Plus, there has been a ton of rumors floating around and what-ifs and how about that’s in the media daily. The most popular, and probably wished for outcome is that the Lakers trade for Anthony Davis and sign another All-Star level player to go along with LeBron James and fill in the roster with a lineup of solid role players.

In going this route the highly touted, and sort of locally loved at this point, “young core” would probably be sacrificed in order to make it all work. Or at least a good part of it.

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We are talking about Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and, to a degree, Moritz Wagner. It seems that most “experts” agree that this would be the surest way for the Lakers to find their way back into the NBA finals in the shortest time. And, at this point, the shortest time is like the coming 2019-2020 season.

But, there could be another road to that same spot and also one that a lot of the fan base could actually get behind. It probably is not the surest road and many will say I am nuts for even bringing it up, but, this is that time in the year when nothing is really happening and we are all on the edge of our seats just waiting and hoping for something good to emerge.

So, I thought I would just float this out there as something to ponder and swish around a bit, as a possible option.

What if we don’t trade away the young core? What if we keep them and build on what we have? This means no AD or Bradley Beal kind of trades.

Maybe we don’t even make a trade unless it involves the draft pick. Maybe we keep that too and add on yet another young talent? Then we hit free agency with money and put at least one top-level big gun and some shooters in the lineup.

Help is needed at the 5 and the 2. It is not out of the realm of possibility that, assuming that our core dudes come back improved, this could actually work. Of course, the front office would really need to hit a homer and make some very smart moves in free agency. No crazy lineups like last year.

This would, I am guessing, be more of a risk than taking the more anticipated direction of big trades and also scoring in free agency. But, in the event that things don’t fall into just the right place with trades, this is another way to go.

Those fans who have grown an attachment to the young guys would probably go for this, and some would not. What we all want is to win. We are tired of this long streak of losing. And, along with that, we want a team we can get behind and cheer for and identify with.

So, who knows at this point, but there is more than one way to get to the promised land. This is just me throwing this one out there into the conversation. I am not saying it is the way to go, just another way to go. Kinda, just in case sort of thing.