Could Walter Tavares be playing elsewhere next season?
The move for Nikola Pekovic was supposed to be what pushed the Lakers into playoff contention. It didn't happen, the team swooning through a 12 game losing streak to end the year, miring the Purple and Gold in mid-lottery mediocrity. Then came the lottery, with Pacific rival Golden State jumping up to the #1 pick, where presumably they'll be selecting Cameron Payne to be the point guard of the future alongside high potential Joel Embiid.
It's a continuation of high calibre talent flooding the Pacific anywhere but Los Angeles. With the Kings, Suns, and now Warriors having elite or potentially elite groupings of young talent that will be virtually impossible to blast past. As a result, the Lakers signaled their intentions to completely dismantle the roster and start over with a new window. "We just don't have the kind of upside here to be anything more than what we are now," GM Jestor said. "There's little sense in wasting what we do have on years where at absolute most we'll be a bottom playoff seed who doesn't have the star power or overall synergy to be a true contender."
That means previously untouchable pieces like Walter Tavares, DeMar DeRozan and T.J. McConnell will now be put on the block, as will a sign and trade opportunity for Michael Carter-Williams, an impending restricted free agent who failed to impress as the team's starting SG. Pekovic, expected to see his numbers jump up as a starter, actually saw them crash in the Purple and Gold's setup, particularly in terms of his scoring, as he consistently struggled with foul problems in the Laker's pressure defense.
While the team's offense was widely praised as being one of the more efficient overall, the defense leaked 113.6 points a game, and despite efforts to add better players on that side of the ball in drafting McConnell with the 5th overall pick in the weakest draft class in CSL history, and trading for Carter-Williams, continued to be essentially shooting practice for their opponents. And even when they could clamp down, that came at the cost of fouls and free throws galore for the other side.
The Lakers also announced that Isaiah Thomas will not have his contract renewed, and it's possible the rest of the staff could be looking for new employment in the offseason as well. What is clear is that the team's playoff drought, initially expected to end as soon as this season, will continue to march on while they seek to forge an actual team identity - one that's been lacking in the ashes of the Kobe Bryant era.
