Los Angeles Lakers: Taking A Road They've Less Traveled

Despite their efforts to corral a premier star player in recent years, the Los Angeles Lakers have been forced to rebuild the long way and focus on the development of their young, promising players.

After years of sustained success, championship pedigree and having a star player to anchor them, a new era has finally come for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Much of the mystique surrounding the Lakers has steadily dissipated in recent years for many reasons. Between the team’s struggles on the court over the last few seasons, the front office’s many strikeouts in free agency and generally gaining notoriety for all the wrong reasons, the Lakers have become a punchline to many followers of the NBA.

However, there was still a certain amount of starpower attached to the Lakers because of Kobe Bryant and that made the team relevant to the NBA landscape, even as the team faltered both on and off the court.

Now that Bryant has called it a day with his career, the Lakers will theoretically enter this season without having to sacrifice development for the opportunities of legends.

They have a young nucleus of promising players, ranging from D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and now Brandon Ingram, that acts as the team’s foundation for the future. With Luke Walton now leading the charge, the Lakers can finally plunge head first into their rebuild.

But as the Lakers start to fully position themselves to the future, it’ll be interesting to watch how the team’s front office wrestles with their new path back towards success and relevance.

We saw a little taste of this earlier in the offseason when the team signed big man Timofey Mozgov and swingman Luol Deng to lucrative deals at the start of the free agency.

The timing of the deals, specifically with the Mozgov signing, obviously drew plenty of ridicule from fans and experts around the league alike, and rightfully so. With that being said, both players offer a level of value to the Lakers on the court, from Mozgov’s activity as a rim-running, rim-protecting big to Deng’s ability to space the floor and defend multiple positions.

Whether it’ll be justified by the end of their respective deals remains to be seen, but it’s not out of the question to imagine any of the team’s young players outperforming and earning starter’s minutes over the team’s newly signed free agents when it’s all said and done (looking at you, Ivica Zubac).

Of course, the bigger question in all of this is whether the team’s front office will resist the urge to add a new superstar, either through a blockbuster trade or via free agency.

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Despite their many failed efforts recently, the Lakers will loom large as a threat to add a premier talent, especially if (or when) the development of the team’s young talent starts to pay off into success.

Yet the biggest obstacle in order for that to happen might be the team’s front office themselves, especially if they ever entertain cashing in any of their young assets for a proven, known commodity, which disrupts their rebuild.

That’s where patience in the process comes in and if those who have the final say over personnel decisions are on the same page for what’s best for the team’s future, the Lakers will be much better off sticking to the path they’re currently on.

For the first time in quite awhile, the Lakers have no discernible star leading them and are far, far away from competing for anything worthwhile anytime soon.

While it’s a far cry from their former glory days, the Lakers haven’t been this interesting in some time as they focus on developing their many promising players to help get them back on the right track.

Although many things stand in their way towards success, we’ll have to see whether the Lakers, more so their front office and ownership, can stand from trying to be their former selves.