Los Angeles Lakers: Looking back on the rebuilding years

Every team goes through a period when they are rebuilding.  Now, sometimes it is not as bad as one may think as there are quite a lot of positives that can come out of it, such as some new young talent or adding a blue-chip veteran. There are times however when things do not go so well and it seems as if the team is stuck. The Los Angeles Lakers have gone through their share of years where the team was retooling.

Sometimes it wasn’t so bad and of course, there were times when it wasn’t so good.

It was the season of 1991-92 and Magic Johnson was not in the NBA anymore, Pat Riley was gone, and Kareem had retired. Showtime may have been over (although Showtime never dies) but the Lakers still had A.C. Green, James Worthy, and Byron Scott.

Jerry West was doing all that he could to try and keep this team afloat. He brought in some new talent in power forward Elden Campbell and European import Vlade Divac. The Lakers also had some solid veterans such as Sedale Threatt, Sam Perkins, and Terry Teagle. The team held together finishing in sixth place in their division and going 43-39 and making the playoffs only to get knocked out by the Clyde Drexler and the deadly Portland Trail Blazers.

The next season, the team seemed to sputter a bit as there were many changes. Mike Dunleavy was out as head coach and Randy Pfund took over. The Lakers roster was very similar to the year before except that they had added two new rookies in Anthony Peeler and Doug Christie.

The Chicago Bulls were on top of the world with Michael Jordan leading the way. The Phoenix Suns were the class of the West being lead by Charles Barkley. Rudy T and the Houston Rockets were deadly. The New York Knicks were running things in the east as one time Laker head coach Pat Riley was in his second year of command.

In 1993-94, things would get worse for the Lakers but even in darkness, there is always light.

That season, they had gone through three coaching changes. Randy Pfund, Bill Bertka, and Magic Johnson.

Byron Scott and A.C. Green were gone and only James Worthy was left. The Lakers had some new blood in rookies George Lynch and Nick Van Exel. Lynch had been a solid all-around player from North Carolina. Van Exel looked like he would be the bright spot on the roster to help get the Lakers back to where they needed to be as he came out firing in his first year averaging 13.6 points per game.

Anthony Peeler was holding his own averaging 14.1 points per game in just his second season, Doug Christie was averaging 10.3 points per game in just his second season as well and Vlade Divac led the team with 15.1 points per game.

James Worthy retired before the 1994-95 season. Del Harris would become the new head coach. Jerry West made another brilliant move drafting talented rookie Eddie Jones. The Lakers were rebuilding just fine. Of course, with brilliant moves comes ones that don’t turn out to be great, but every general manager and owner goes through this.

West traded a future first-round pick to the Phoenix Suns. Now, while that player he traded for was Cedric Ceballos, who had only two solid seasons with the team, the player that would later be drafted was Michael Finley. The team did well that year finishing 48-34 and getting to the second round of the playoffs. Things were getting better.

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The Lakers improved to 53-29 in the 1995-96 season but they still couldn’t seem to get to the next level as they were early exits in the NBA Playoffs that year. Of course, Jerry West had his eyes on something very large for the future. West always seemed to keep reinventing himself as an executive as he kept rebuilding the Lakers.

That next season, he grabbed his wand and put on his wizard hat and did something only Gandalf could do. First, he traded Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for a rookie named Kobe Bryant. Next, he signed Shaquille O’Neal. West brought back Lakers great Byron Scott, signed veteran forward Jerome Kersey and later that season he would trade Cedric Ceballos and guard Rumeal Robinson to the Phoenix Suns for forward Robert Horry.

Fast forward to the 2004-05 season. The Lakers had now had been to the NBA Finals in four out of the last five seasons and had won three of them all consecutively.  Head coach Phil Jackson was gone as was Jerry West. Mitch Kupchak was now in charge.

Shaq had been traded to the Miami Heat in a move that shook all of Los Angeles. Vlade Divac was brought back. Rick Fox, Gary Payton and a first-round pick were traded to the Boston Celtics for Jumaine Jones, Chris Mihm, and Chucky Atkins. The new head coach was Rudy Tomjanovich who would end up only lasting part of the season. Yes, things had surely changed.

In 2005-06 Phil Jackson would return after a one-year absence. The Lakers had a young roster of players consisting of Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Smush Parker, Brian Cook, Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, and the newly drafted Andrew Bynum.

Once again the team was in the rebuilding mode as these were the post-Shaq days and Black Mamba fever had taken over the city of Los Angeles as well as the NBA. Good things were coming.

Then in the season of 2007-08, the Lakers would make major moves and have a great regular season as they seemed to be ready to get to the next level. Derrick Fisher was brought back. Brian Cook and Maurice Evans were traded to Orlando for Trevor Ariza.

That February of 2008, the Lakers would make a major move that would shake the league. The Lakers traded Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Marc Gasol, Aaron Mckie and two first-round picks for Pau Gasol and a second-round pick.

This gave the Lakers major firepower as they now had two unstoppable forces in Bryant and Gasol as well as a roster full of talent. The Lakers would make the NBA Finals that year only to, unfortunately, lose to the rival Boston Celtics. Of course, they would win it all the next two seasons and push this current team into the stratosphere of basketball.

Then of course came more dark days and rebuilding years. Coaches seemed to come and go. Mike Brown, Mike D’Antoni, Byron Scott, Luke Walton, etc. The roster had changed so much from the days of Kobe, Gasol, Odom, and Metta World Peace as players like Dwight Howard and Steve Nash were brought in. The front office looked much different too. It took a while but eventually, things would work themselves out.

Now of course the team sits in the offseason looking at the future and trying to figure out how to get back to where they belong. While they may not be in full rebuilding mode, the Lakers are looking to see what to add and what to subtract. The haters should pay attention closely because this team will figure out the next move and get their way back to greatness. That’s a guarantee.