Los Angeles Lakers: A timeline of how they rebuilt their team
By Ethan Temkin
With a duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Los Angeles Lakers are back in championship contention, but to fully appreciate this team, we need to know how we got here.
Ever since the days of George Mikan back in the 1950s and 1960s, the Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the paragons of consistent success in the NBA. The team has been able to seamlessly transition between periods of dominance going back to the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s, the Shaq-Kobe Lakers of the 2000s, to the Kobe-Gasol teams from 2008-2012.
That all changed in the tail end of the 2012-2013 season when Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant –one of the primary factors in the Laker’s success — went down with a torn Achilles and as a result, altered the trajectory of the Lakers franchise for years to come.
What followed was a complete and total rebuild for a franchise that had become accustomed to consistent success and dominance. But as is the case with most things, all of that struggle would pay off as the Lakers have found themselves back in championship contention with a roster that is set up for both future and present success in the form of Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
But how exactly did the Lakers get here? How did they go from perennial championship contenders led by Kobe Bryant to one of the league’s worst team the last five season?
How did they manage to sign one of the most sought after free agents in LeBron James, while also having enough assets to trade for one of the league’s most dominant power forwards?
To answer these questions, we need to go back to the beginning.