Los Angeles Lakers: Where do they go from here?

With the offseason here for the Los Angeles Lakers, where will the franchise go next?

Since Magic Johnson‘s surprise resignation, a lot has been said about the Los Angeles Lakers future trajectory due to Rob Pelinka’s terrible reputation. The Lakers still have one trump card in LeBron James and cannot hesitate to pull him out to save this franchise.

Much has been made about appointing Ty Lue as the next head coach due to his ties with James but any person who has been around the two says Ty Lue did not pull his punches when LBJ was in the wrong.

The Lakers need a coach who has the respect of LeBron James and that can connect with the younger players, Lue fits that bill while also has shown the expertise in X’s and O’s.

Monty Williams and Juwan Howard are both fine candidates who could do a great job, but next season is going to be LeBron at age 35, and the Lakers already wasted a year with a coach who had never coached LeBron before. They cannot make the same mistake again. Next is free agency and the one player they should put all their respective efforts in (I’m looking at you LBJ) is Kawhi Leonard.

Kawhi fits the bill as the marquee FA who could change the tide and bring LA to greatness once again. All we know so far is Kawhi wants to be in LA. If that’s true the Lakers have a punchers chance.

Lakers have to learn from last season that gritty defenders do not work in this league if they cannot hit an open three-point shot. Instead of building with the times, the Lakers tried to build a contender from 2011 and to no shock at all it failed. Shooting is premium this summer and that goes for hiring a shooting coach for the young players as well. The playoffs have shown that shooting is at an all-time high as a skill for perimeter players and the Lakers cannot keep putting out lineups with no shooting whatsoever.

This is all possible if the Lakers front office just gives in and tries to build like everyone else. At a certain point you have to get with the times, and the Lakers have been fighting it for far too long.