So, what happens next?
Somehow, someway, the show must go on. The search for a post-Kobe Bryant-era cornerstone must continue.
Lessons Learned
The Lakers have spent the better part of three years (unsuccessfully) engineering future direction.
Chris Paul was their future (2011), until former NBA commissioner David Stern decided he wasn't. Dwight Howard was their future (2012-13), until he left for Houston, unwilling to endure Bryant's company any longer.
Cap space—once an accessory—soon became their future. LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Love, among others, could all be sold on Los Angeles lore and absorbed via financial plasticity the money-burning Lakers rarely enjoyed.
Sure enough, those options gradually—yet quite suddenly—ebbed into nonexistence. James rejoined the Cleveland Cavaliers. Anthony re-signed with the New York Knicks. Love followed James.
Grand plans came undone.
But they are not dead.
Desperate for star power outside a 36-year-old Bryant, the Lakers' pursuit of clarity plows on, their needs obvious, their next move uncertain.
Immediately, the Lakers have assembled an engaging placeholder consisting of promising and proven talent that creates hope—however false or exaggerated—without compromising the cap flexibility that has become essential to moving forward.
“I’m going to walk into our locker room the first day of our meeting and say, ‘I want to win a championship,’” head coach Byron Scott said of his team, per the Los Angeles ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
