In an effort to surround LeBron James with the necessary firepower to win a ring during his time in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Lakers‘ front office made some serious moves to mortgage their future for the present. The Lakers let go of multiple top-three draft selections in an effort to maintain the services of two max players, a feat that they successfully accomplished.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis run the Lakers right now and likely will continue to do so for a couple more seasons. If Davis opts to return to the Lakers, he will likely have the torch passed to him to the lead the Los Angeles Lakers to as many titles as possible.
Initially, the hope was that the Lakers would go through a traditional rebuild that would allow the top draft selections a place to play a large helping of minutes to develop. The organization opted to pursue that course of action for a few seasons but went in a different direction when LeBron James signed on the dotted line in the summer of 2018.
Some fans believe they should have let the young players develop alongside King James while others are thrilled that the Lakers got LeBron a running mate. Either way, the Lakers are in contention and are being mentioned as one of the best teams, if not the best team, in the NBA.
What’s next for the former Los Angeles Lakers young core?
We decided to take a look at the former young Lakers and predict who will wind up having the best careers in the NBA. For this exercise, we only looked at players who were drafted after the 2014 regular season — the true start of the rebuild in Los Angeles.