Are you confident that the front office will build this team up to a contender for the championship?
TA: They’ve definitely taken the right steps in moving towards that process. Boston has 3 unprotected 1st Round picks that they may use at their own discretion, be it dangling them in trade offers or actually drafting prospects. They’re definitely poised to have major cap space these next two summers and have given themselves tremendous flexibility in how they operate through these next couple of years. As to being contenders that may simply be dependent on how successful they are in pairing Rondo with some more complimentary stars.
Should going after the marquee free agents in 2014 be the Lakers’ top priority going forward and is it realistic/feasible to think they might be able to acquire at least one of them?
CC: As I said earlier, I think the Lakers are going all in with regards to free agency. If they want to win right now, then that is what they are going to have to do. It is a very real possibility that the Lakers could end up with one of the top free agents. No, I don’t see them signing LeBron, but I could see them luring Carmelo Anthony to Los Angeles. We know that Melo and Kobe are good friends, and the New York Knicks are not in a good situation right now, so I think Carmelo is the Lakers best shot right now.