4) Will any of the returning ‘Baby Lakers’ show significant improvement?
Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr.and Tyler Ennis are all entering their third or fourth NBA season, while Ivica Zubac begins his second.
Word is that all of them, most especially Randle, Clarkson and Nance, worked extremely hard this off-season to develop multiple aspects of their games. How much will that translate to on-court success this season?
Speculation has been rampant that Randle and/or Clarkson could be traded to clear more cap space to sign free agents. The reasons are primarily because Randle’s rookie contract expires after this year, and Clarkson is the team’s fourth-highest paid player this season behind Lopez, KCP and Luol Deng.
Can Randle play well enough to convince the front office that he should indeed be the team’s power forward of the future? Will Clarkson provide sufficient firepower as the sixth man to deserve to be retained? And will Nance Jr. continue to be an outstanding source of energy off the bench?
Many questions with this group remain to be answered. Most importantly, which of the five players will convince Lakers management that they deserve to be held onto beyond the 2017-18 season?