Los Angeles Lakers: What will Jeanie Buss do this offseason?

3. What will the summer look like?

Will they look to select a player who can help immediately? Will they instead choose someone with greater potential who needs more time to develop? Or will they draft a player who might be most attractive to other teams in a trade?

It is a decision that should be made by a highly competent head of basketball operations, or at the very least by an experienced general manager.

There is current chatter that Magic will still be used as a recruiter and “closer” even though he is not officially employed by the Lakers. How well will that strategy work?

How strongly will the team focus on trying to sign one of the “big five” potential free agents (Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Jimmy Butler)? Any or all could return to his current team, but the Lakers would love to successfully recruit at least one of them.

Instead, if they realize those efforts will likely fail, will they turn their focus to the next tier of free agents (Kemba Walker, DeMarcus Cousins, Nikola Vucevic, Khris Middleton and Tobias Harris)? Any of those players could also provide excellent help and might be easier to sign.

Beyond those players are two former high Laker draft picks who will be coveted by many other teams (but almost certainly not the Lakers): Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell.