The Lakers didn’t play well in the Las Vegas Summer League. We all had hoped that this team would have competed for the title, but instead they only won one game and their prized rookie didn’t play particularly well.
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Now, the fans must wait until training camp to see the Lakers back in action. The current roster seems to be the one that the Lakers will take into the start of the regular season, but they were close to shaking things up a bit.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Lakers were one of the bidders to land Ty Lawson, but the Nuggets ultimately liked what the Houston Rockets had to offer:
ESPN sources say that the Lakers were also a determined trade bidder for Ty Lawson, but Denver clearly preferred what the Rockets offered
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) July 20, 2015
No word on what the Lakers offered to Denver, but it could not beat a first round pick. The Nuggets received Kostas Papanikolaou, Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson along with the draft pick, which is not bad considering the Rockets are getting a guy who averaged 15.2 points and 9.6 assists.
Those names don’t really blow you away, which means the Lakers couldn’t beat an offer that included a first round pick. Maybe the Mitch Kupchak was trying to unload one of the names rumored to be on the trade block, players like Nick Young or Ryan Kelly.
The addition of Lawson would have given the Lakers a legitimate starting point guard, but now they have to count on the rookie D’Angelo Russell to play the point guard position at the start of the season. While his numbers weren’t very impressive, he did show flashes of brilliance.
It’s important to be patient right now and the Lakers’ focus should be on the development of their young players. Russell and this young core will improve as the year goes on, they just need to be on the floor together as much as possible.