The Los Angeles Lakers had three players land on ESPN’s Top-100 player rankings list.
The Los Angeles Lakers are wrapping up their first offseason under the new management duo of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka. Johnson was named President of Basketball prior to the NBA Trade Deadline in February and Pelinka was officially announced as General Manager in early March.
With the new management in place, a new direction and view for the organization followed. Johnson put a youth movement in place beginning at the trade deadline, something Pelinka has followed through with this offseason.
Johnson got things rolling trading Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets for a first-round pick. The Lakers fully embraced the youth movement by removing virtually all of their veterans from the rotation. This offseason, the youth movement continued with an eye toward free agency in 2018.
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2018 is when the Lakers are hoping to make a big splash in free agency. They are hoping the young nucleus they have put together shows enough promise to convince a veteran, such as LeBron James, Paul George or Russell Westbrook, to come to Hollywood.
That youthful core was added to this offseason. The Lakers ended up making four selections in the 2017 NBA Draft. They nabbed budding star Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 pick, underrated Kyle Kuzma at No. 27, All-American Josh Hart at No. 30 and the oozing with potential Thomas Bryant No. 42.
With keeping the books clean in the future, the Lakers acquired Brook Lopez and the No. 27 pick from the Brooklyn Nets for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the biggest free agent signing, agreeing to a one-year, $18 million deal.
It has resulted in an improved roster, which is acknowledged by ESPN in their top-100 list. The Lakers had three players named in the top-100. Which three players was it? Check out our slideshow breaking down the three Lakers players who cracked ESPN’s top-100 rankings.