Los Angeles Lakers: Is the glass half-full or half-empty?

It’s been quite an eventful, unpredictable seven weeks since the Los Angeles Lakers played their final game of the season! What does all that’s occurred mean?

It has been a crazy few weeks for the Los Angeles Lakers. More has happened in Laker-land over the last six weeks than at any other similar period in team history. It’s all led to unprecedented speculation and forecasting over what the franchise will do next and where it is headed.

For those who hibernated or took a long vacation, here’s a quick summary:

1. Magic Resigns – On the last day of the regular season, Magic Johnson held an impromptu press conference to announce that he was resigning his position as Lakers President of Basketball Operations. Many fans were dissatisfied with his roster moves over the last two years, but nobody thought he’d leave this suddenly.

It was even more shocking to learn that Magic hadn’t shared the news in advance with his boss, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss (who he regards as his “sister”), his general manager Rob Pelinka, his coach Luke Walton, who he was intending to fire, his star player LeBron James, or anyone else on the team.

The immediate reaction, beyond surprise and dismay at how Magic handled the situation, was trying to predict who Buss would hire to replace him. Would she try to bring back Jerry West or Pat Riley, or even Phil Jackson? Would she pursue the highly respected former Cleveland GM David Griffin? Or perhaps a GM from another team, like Golden State’s Bob Myers? And would she fire Pelinka?

Jeanie Buss has not spoken directly to the press or Lakers fans since Johnson stepped down. But she apparently did not contact Jerry West… or Pat Riley… or David Griffin… or Bob Myers… or anyone else outside the “Laker family”.

Instead, she decided to eliminate Johnson’s position and retain Pelinka as GM, even though it’s common knowledge that he has made enemies of various other GMs and player agents. He will now report directly to Buss. Furthermore, Senior Basketball Advisor Kurt Rambis will apparently play a bigger front office role going forward.

2. Coaching Change– Since Magic quit before he could fire Walton, and since Jeanie was known to be a strong Luke supporter, conventional logic seemed to indicate that his job was safe and that he would continue as coach.

But just a few days after Johnson’s resignation, Walton & the Lakers parted ways by “mutual consent”. Quick as a wink, Luke accepted a 5-year deal to be the head coach of the Sacramento Kings, who have a roster stocked with promising young players, much as the Lakers did a year or so ago.

The Lakers then embarked on a coaching search. Interviews apparently went well with their top two candidates, Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams. But the Phoenix Suns swooped in and signed Williams. The Lakers then offered a 3-year deal to Lue that reportedly required that he accept a potential future replacement, Jason Kidd, on his coaching staff.

On the one hand, Lue, who won a title coaching Cleveland, felt disrespected by both the length of the offer and having to hire Kidd. On the other hand, Lue has been unemployed since the Cavs fired him after an 0-6 start, and not a single other NBA team has knocked on his door. But Lue rejected the Lakers offer.

After wiping the egg off their faces, the Lakers front office widened their candidate net and swiftly hired Frank Vogel, who did an excellent coaching job in Indiana, bringing them to the Eastern Conference Finals twice to challenge LeBron’s Cavs, and a not-so-good job coaching a rebuilding Orlando squad. But Vogel agreed to have Kidd on his staff and quickly signed a 3-year contract.

3. Draft Lottery Success– Since the Lakers failed for the sixth straight year to make the playoffs, they participated yet again in the NBA draft lottery… which nobody anticipated when they signed LeBron James last July!

Although they had the 11th-worst record this season, the Lakers somehow bucked the odds to secure the fourth pick in the NBA draft. Unfortunately, the draft supposedly has only three “can’t miss” prospects, but hey, 4th is certainly better than 11th.

That leads to new speculation. Some say the team should absolutely, positively trade that pick, that holding on to it would embrace failure. The pick could be used as part of a larger trade. Or it could be dealt directly for a veteran who could help more immediately. Or the team could even trade down in the draft for two picks or a pick and a veteran.

Of course, the Lakers could also opt to keep the pick and add a promising player to their young core. Early conjecture points to four players: D’Andre Hunter, the Virginia forward who had a relatively quiet NCAA tournament before busting out with a big Finals performance, Jarrett Culver, the Texas Tech guard and Big-12 MVP who had a forgettable tournament, Darius Garland, the Vanderbilt guard who missed most of the season due to injury but left the NBA Draft Combine early, or Cam Reddish, the much-heralded Duke forward who had an inconsistent, disappointing season.

Or perhaps someone else might emerge over the next month before the draft, like big men Jaxson Hayes, a strong 7-foot defender at the rim, or Bol Bol, a rail-thin 7-2 3-point threat. Or maybe even a promising Euro like Goga Bitadze, a 6-11 Georgian who has been compared to current NBA centers Steven Adams, Nikola Jokic and Jusuf Nurkic.

4. Front Office Disarray– Finally, on the day the Lakers were introducing Vogel as their coach, Magic Johnson lobbed a hand grenade at the front office, accusing Pelinka of being a backstabber in a televised interview.

Why exactly did Johnson feel the need to air his complaints publicly? He has constantly expressed his love for the Lakers and his hopes for their success. He had to realize that his comments would add fuel to the fire that the front office is dysfunctional, and might well hurt their efforts to recruit free agents this summer.

Regardless of how true his criticism is or is not, by voicing it out loud, he put his own interests ahead of the Lakers.

That brings us around to the present. As the front office conducts its due diligence on potential draft picks, the public seems to be divided into two divergent opinions on the current state of the Lakers.

The Glass is Half-Empty

Folks expressing this opinion point out that the front office is in chaos and is incapable of leading the franchise back to glory.

They say the team desperately needs to add a second star, but it’s highly unlikely this front office will be able to sign any of the potential big five free agents: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson or Jimmy Butler.

Furthermore, they think it’s only a matter of time before Kidd undermines Vogel and divides the loyalty of Lakers players into two camps.

More from Lake Show Life

They say the Lakers must do all they can to win now while LeBron James is still at or near the top of his game. That means trading away the No. 4 draft pick with some combination of the young core (Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart) to bring in an established star (preferably Anthony Davis or perhaps Bradley Beal) to pair with LeBron.

But overall, they are not confident that the Lakers can do what is necessary to get back on the winning track anytime soon.

The Glass is Half-Full

These folks are much more optimistic about where the franchise is headed. Although they agree the front office is untested, they don’t believe it is in nearly as bad shape as is commonly reputed.

They like the hire of Vogel, who spoke confidently and positively about the team at his press conference, and hope that Kidd will take on a mentoring role to players like Ball.

They believe that both Ingram and Kuzma are on the verge of stardom, that either or both will step up to become the needed star companion to James. They also think Ball is under-appreciated and will return much-improved, and that Hart is an important role-player. And they point out that in the 23 games that LeBron, BI, Kuz and Lonzo played together, the team went 15-8, a .652 winning percentage.

Rather than using all their cap space on a superstar, they’d prefer that the Lakers spend it on two Tier 2 players, a consistent big man and a good shooter. Then a presumably healthier team will be on track to compete in the tough Western Conference.

Next. 3 Ways To Upgrade The Roster Outside Anthony Davis. dark

The opinion here supports the half-full viewpoint. What do you think? Is the Lakers glass half-full or half-empty?

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