Lakers Lottery Outcome Enlightens Once Dim Future
My TV guide says the NBA draft lottery only ran half an hour. It felt like half a lifetime.
Twitter was ablaze with speculation at where the Lakers might fall. Might the league do its most popular franchise a solid and grant them the top pick? Maybe the Lakers’ recent run of tough luck would continue and they’d fall from the top five so the selection would go to that smug little Sam Hinkie and his Philetankia seventy-tankers.
-== Lakers Draft Evaluations: Comparing Then & Now ==-
Finally, after what felt like a zillion words from Jay Bilas it started. Envelope after envelope was unveiled and, after yet another eternity, we reached the moment of truth: Picks six and seven, the only spots the Lakers could fall to where they’d lose their pick.
AND THEY PASSED! THE LAKERS ARE ALIVE!
Okay, now we can start getting greedy. The Lakers kept their top-five pick, so let’s see how high they might climb…
To quote LeBron James, but backwards: “Not fourth, not third, SECOND!”
Keeping their pick is already a major win. They have a major asset moving forward into one of the most important off-seasons in franchise history.
All that losing paid off. Lakers fans can finally rejoice.
So, what does this lottery outcome mean in the coming weeks? Made simply: clarity.
The weeks leading up to Tuesday were filled with groundless speculation that started and ended simultaneously with how the lottery might turn out. “Well, sure the Lakers might be interested in free agent X, but they also might be able to draft someone at his same position.” Now, however, with a top-tier prospect lined up, we can speculate with a little more ground under our feet.
Drafting second (!), the Lakers have some idea who might be coming their way.
Most obviously, whoever the Minnesota Timberwolves don’t take between Karl-Anthony Town and Jahlil Okafor would fit pretty nicely alongside Julius Randle. If the Lakers draft either of those two (either of which rank among the most promising prospects in recent years), free agent targets like DeAndre Jordan and Marc Gasol make less sense to pursue. If they personally request to come to Los Angeles, that’s another story; but clamoring to spend hundreds of millions just wouldn’t make much sense.
If the Lakers decide to go in another direction and grab D’Angelo Russell, spending a single red penny on Rajon Rondo would epitomize inefficiency. I’m not kidding at all. Mitch Kupchak shouldn’t even waste the cellular minutes on a call with Rondo’s agent if they draft the talented point guard from Ohio State.
At the end of the day, Tuesday solidified a very promising future for the Lakers. You know how passionately fans root for Kobe Bryant? A lot of that stems from how many grew up alongside the one-time 17-year-old who inspired oo’s and ah’s from many a Great Western Forum crowd. Imagine how they’ll relate to an entire core of prospects who appear poised to excite Staples Center crowds for the next decade… Yeah, that’s pretty special.
And so goes the NBA, where windows are opened and closed like opportunities for Vincent Chase in “Entourage.” Tuesday evening represented a light at the end of the tunnel for Lakers fans who understand where tanking might take the team. Given the outcome, that glimmer is shining as brightly as the spotlight that awaits whomever Kupchak and the Lakers deem the future of the franchise.
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