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**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins
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Speaking of healthy appetites, don’t let LeBron James’ relentless promotion of “Space Jam: A New Legacy” fool you.
His real-life story does not feature a superstar who is suddenly satisfied with his historic career, who earned his one championship in a Lakers jersey inside that Orlando bubble last October and suddenly entered unofficial hoops retirement en route to a second chapter in which movie making is his only priority. Even if my email inbox might indicate otherwise.
This, for example, was an actual pitch that landed like the Moron Airship on Monday morning (that’s an original “Space Jam” reference, kids) and speaks volumes about the marketing madness that has ensued in the wake of the Warner Bros. movie being released.
“Bugs Bunny gives his opinion on Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James,” the note’s subject line read.
Ahhh, what’s up GOAT?
And make no mistake — as this viral video of James thanking the entire ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ cast showed — he clearly cares about this part of his portfolio.
But back in the real basketball world, where James’ Lakers fell to the Phoenix Suns in the first round after James’ NBA co-star, Anthony Davis, limped into the offseason with that strained groin, sources say the Lakers are highly motivated to add another significant player to the roster and win it all again this season because of the reality of the situation. Behold, the age-old Father Time factor — emphasis on “old.”
There’s a reason you’re reading about so many Lakers possibilities these days — with our Shams Charania’s Sunday report revealing the latest — and it has everything to do with the internal urgency that is driving their movements at the moment.
Never mind that the people closest to him can envision him playing past his 40th birthday, or that he still has two seasons left on his current contract, the harsh truth is that James won’t be an MVP-caliber player forever. When he wasn’t sidelined by injuries last season and limited to playing just 45 games, he joined Denver’s MVP, Nikola Jokic, and Dallas’ Luka Doncic as the only players to average at least 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. That alone shows the class he still keeps.
There’s no time for patience, in other words, especially when James is still such a special player when he’s healthy.
For James, the 2020 title ensured his L.A. mission was accomplished after his move from Cleveland in 2018. But rest assured, there will be a thirst to add more rings until the day he’s finally done.
Ditto for Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, who was no doubt relieved when Boston fell to Brooklyn in the first round because, well, it meant the Lakers’ top rival had fallen short too. After all, her late father, Dr. Jerry Buss, always strived to have more titles than the Celtics and the NBA’s winningest franchises remained tied at 17 titles apiece as a result. The younger generation may not understand that sort of old-school Lakers mentality, but it is very much still a thing.
From Buss on down, the Lakers have a healthy appreciation for James’ basketball superpowers and are well aware they won’t last forever. The injuries to James and Davis last season were an unwelcome reminder of that much, leading some Lakers officials to worry that this window might be even shorter than they’d originally hoped. As such, they’re in the process of turning over all the proverbial stones in search of the right piece(s) to return to the NBA’s mountaintop. Their time is now, in other words — again.
Alas, ESPN’s Marc Spears indicated that a Russell Westbrook sign-and-trade with Washington could be a possibility, and Charania indicated that a Buddy Hield deal might be in the works with Sacramento. Of all the scenarios for a supporting player believed to be in play, one source to the situation indicated the Hield deal — which would involve forward Kyle Kuzma and would also likely require Lakers forward Montrezl Harrell to opt in to the final year of his deal (worth $9.7 million) and be included — appears the most promising thus far.
For the Kings, Kuzma (three years, $39 million combined on his deal) and Harrell ($9.7 million next season if he opts in) could fit in well on the roster that is now being built around De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. A source with knowledge of the talks said Philadelphia also has shown interest (unrelated to Simmons), with other teams believed to be engaged on that front as well. A Hield deal of some sort, it seems, is likely on the horizon.
For the Lakers, adding an elite 3-point shooter like Hield on a long-term deal (three years, $63 million remaining) would be significant considering their struggles on that front last season. The Lakers ranked 25th in made 3s per game (11.1), were 24th in attempts (31.2) and 21st in 3-point percentage (35.4). Hield was third in the NBA in 3s per game (four) behind Steph Curry and Damian Lillard and third in attempts (10.2, also behind Curry and Lillard).
Independent of the possible Hield deal, finding a high-level point guard is a major priority for the Lakers as well. But as you’ve read so many times elsewhere, it’s a tall task for general manager Rob Pelinka to pull off when working with a taxpayer midlevel exception and extremely limited draft assets. Still, the driving force behind all of the pursuits is the realization that this version of James simply must be maximized.
His real-life story does not feature a superstar who is suddenly satisfied with his historic career, who earned his one championship in a Lakers jersey inside that Orlando bubble last October and suddenly entered unofficial hoops retirement en route to a second chapter in which movie making is his only priority. Even if my email inbox might indicate otherwise.
This, for example, was an actual pitch that landed like the Moron Airship on Monday morning (that’s an original “Space Jam” reference, kids) and speaks volumes about the marketing madness that has ensued in the wake of the Warner Bros. movie being released.
“Bugs Bunny gives his opinion on Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James,” the note’s subject line read.
Ahhh, what’s up GOAT?
And make no mistake — as this viral video of James thanking the entire ‘Space Jam: A New Legacy’ cast showed — he clearly cares about this part of his portfolio.
But back in the real basketball world, where James’ Lakers fell to the Phoenix Suns in the first round after James’ NBA co-star, Anthony Davis, limped into the offseason with that strained groin, sources say the Lakers are highly motivated to add another significant player to the roster and win it all again this season because of the reality of the situation. Behold, the age-old Father Time factor — emphasis on “old.”
There’s a reason you’re reading about so many Lakers possibilities these days — with our Shams Charania’s Sunday report revealing the latest — and it has everything to do with the internal urgency that is driving their movements at the moment.
Never mind that the people closest to him can envision him playing past his 40th birthday, or that he still has two seasons left on his current contract, the harsh truth is that James won’t be an MVP-caliber player forever. When he wasn’t sidelined by injuries last season and limited to playing just 45 games, he joined Denver’s MVP, Nikola Jokic, and Dallas’ Luka Doncic as the only players to average at least 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. That alone shows the class he still keeps.
There’s no time for patience, in other words, especially when James is still such a special player when he’s healthy.
For James, the 2020 title ensured his L.A. mission was accomplished after his move from Cleveland in 2018. But rest assured, there will be a thirst to add more rings until the day he’s finally done.
Ditto for Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, who was no doubt relieved when Boston fell to Brooklyn in the first round because, well, it meant the Lakers’ top rival had fallen short too. After all, her late father, Dr. Jerry Buss, always strived to have more titles than the Celtics and the NBA’s winningest franchises remained tied at 17 titles apiece as a result. The younger generation may not understand that sort of old-school Lakers mentality, but it is very much still a thing.
From Buss on down, the Lakers have a healthy appreciation for James’ basketball superpowers and are well aware they won’t last forever. The injuries to James and Davis last season were an unwelcome reminder of that much, leading some Lakers officials to worry that this window might be even shorter than they’d originally hoped. As such, they’re in the process of turning over all the proverbial stones in search of the right piece(s) to return to the NBA’s mountaintop. Their time is now, in other words — again.
Alas, ESPN’s Marc Spears indicated that a Russell Westbrook sign-and-trade with Washington could be a possibility, and Charania indicated that a Buddy Hield deal might be in the works with Sacramento. Of all the scenarios for a supporting player believed to be in play, one source to the situation indicated the Hield deal — which would involve forward Kyle Kuzma and would also likely require Lakers forward Montrezl Harrell to opt in to the final year of his deal (worth $9.7 million) and be included — appears the most promising thus far.
For the Kings, Kuzma (three years, $39 million combined on his deal) and Harrell ($9.7 million next season if he opts in) could fit in well on the roster that is now being built around De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. A source with knowledge of the talks said Philadelphia also has shown interest (unrelated to Simmons), with other teams believed to be engaged on that front as well. A Hield deal of some sort, it seems, is likely on the horizon.
For the Lakers, adding an elite 3-point shooter like Hield on a long-term deal (three years, $63 million remaining) would be significant considering their struggles on that front last season. The Lakers ranked 25th in made 3s per game (11.1), were 24th in attempts (31.2) and 21st in 3-point percentage (35.4). Hield was third in the NBA in 3s per game (four) behind Steph Curry and Damian Lillard and third in attempts (10.2, also behind Curry and Lillard).
Independent of the possible Hield deal, finding a high-level point guard is a major priority for the Lakers as well. But as you’ve read so many times elsewhere, it’s a tall task for general manager Rob Pelinka to pull off when working with a taxpayer midlevel exception and extremely limited draft assets. Still, the driving force behind all of the pursuits is the realization that this version of James simply must be maximized.
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the return of Isaac Bonga
- 88,706
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- Feb 29, 2000
trezz bout to opt out hearing he gon be traded to sacramento
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- Jul 16, 2017
Pretty sure he’d welcome that. Close to LA. Will get tons of playtime on a bad team. Pick and roll with him and Fox and Halliburton. Especiallly if they lose Holmes and trade bagley. It’s 1 year to raise his stock
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Shroeder 21 mill
Tht 11 mill
Kcp 13
weatbrook 44
Kuzma 13
Trez 9.7
Hield 23
Westbrook
Hield
Lebron
AD
Gasol
Edit: Forgot about DD are signing for 5 million
Tht 11 mill
Kcp 13
weatbrook 44
Kuzma 13
Trez 9.7
Hield 23
Westbrook
Hield
Lebron
AD
Gasol
Edit: Forgot about DD are signing for 5 million
Last edited:
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Unless Trezz finds a team willing to give him $12M+ a year, he should just opt-in.
- 39,259
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another 1+ 1 for the MLE with the PO
i think he can get that as a FA
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agreed, opting out just because he would play for the Kings would be a mistake. Take the cash and roll the dice to get a bigger pay day next offseason. Back to back years of being labeled as unplayable due to matchups ain’t a good look going into free agency right now.
MVP
Supporter
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Buddy for Kuz and Trez
Russ for Dennis, KCP and who else?
Russ for Dennis, KCP and who else?
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a Busy Hield and Russell Westbrook backcourt would be barbecued chicken defensively.
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I advise opting-in so he can accumulate another year of Bird Rights versus signing another 1+1.
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I advise opting-in so we can trade him
- 22,519
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I’m not buying that the lakers asked for TJ warren and 13th pick for Kuzma and 22nd pick. That makes 0 sense for pacers and is insulting.
MVP
Supporter
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Again Vogel can scheme to a really good defense regardless of personnel. We just saw it last season.
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Inside the Lakers’ recent draft success and their preparation for the No. 22 pick
At the end of every Lakers draft workout inside the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, Calif., each prospect lines up on the baseline with a basketball. There is 90 seconds on the shot clock.
All eyes are on the player during the “Kobe Mentality drill” — Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, assistant general manager, director of scouting and co-owner Jesse Buss, head coach Frank Vogel, the Lakers’ scouting department, assistant coaches and a few other staffers.
The player has to make as many shots as they can during the allotted time. They can only shoot once on each side of the floor, meaning they have to quickly sprint from basket to basket as they rebound their attempts. A layup is worth one point, a midrange shot is worth two, and a 3-pointer is worth three.
The drill, invented by Pelinka, was first introduced during the Lakers’ 2017 draft workouts, shortly after Pelinka and former president of basketball operations Magic Johnson joined the franchise. Publicly, the drill has been dubbed the “Lakers Mentality drill,” with prospects often mentioning it as a unique wrinkle during their Laker workouts. But internally, the Lakers call it the “Kobe Mentality drill,” a nod to Bryant’s legendary competitiveness, conditioning and mental toughness.
“It’s a tough one,” 2021 draft prospect Trey Murphy III recently said of the drill. “It’s a really tough one.”
Here’s a video, captured by The Athletic’s Bill Oram, of Grizzlies wing Grayson Allen going through the drill in 2018.
While speaking over the phone to The Athletic last week, Pelinka declined to share the origin or specifics of the drill, but he offered a glimpse into his evaluation of the exercise.
“It’s really a test of, ‘OK, it’s one thing to walk in the gym fresh and move and shoot and be effective. But how are you playing basketball once you’re exhausted, once you’re past your limits?’” Pelinka told The Athletic. “Because that’s the fourth quarter. That’s when the game’s on the line. Can you perform at a high level when you’ve spent everything you have? And that’s the mentality that we know Kobe always played with. And so we have drills that test that fortitude.”
The Lakers’ workouts, according to dozens of prospects over the past half-decade or so, have been among the most challenging — mentally and physically — in the NBA. The Lakers want to push players to their limits to observe how they respond.
“At the end of the day, we want to see how competitive a player is,” Buss told The Athletic. “And being able to deal with fatigue and being exhausted is definitely a giant factor in that.”
The Lakers currently have the No. 22 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft on Thursday. That could change at any moment. The Lakers, determined to redeem themselves after last season’s disappointing first-round exit to the Suns, are trying to dramatically upgrade their roster for next season. To do so, they’d almost certainly have to include their best tradeable asset, which is their 2021 first-round pick.
The Lakers have explored all scenarios with the pick: keeping it, moving up or down in the draft and packaging the pick with one of their rotation players under contract — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma are the only logical options — to improve the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
But a draft-night trade is far from guaranteed, particularly when factoring in the Lakers’ impressive recent draft history. If any team in the NBA can find a rotation player outside of the lottery, it’s the Lakers, who have repeatedly done so since 2013. As Los Angeles sifts through dozens of prospects for the No. 22 pick, one of the deciding factors will be players who exude the vaunted “Kobe Mentality” — competitiveness, work ethic, fortitude — qualities that the organization has pursued since Pelinka’s arrival.
“I’m not sure any other team can match their draft track record, and that’s before even something like prioritizing Alex Caruso as an undrafted free agent,” The Athletic’s draft expert Sam Vecenie said. “The Lakers’ front office has a really keen eye in finding good players late.”
The list of successful Lakers draft picks over the past seven years is wide-ranging, from players in the lottery to undrafted rookie free agents: Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr., Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac, David Nwaba, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Caruso, Thomas Bryant, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Talen Horton-Tucker.
Those are all modern-day rotation players. Even Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Tarik Black and Ryan Kelly have had relevant moments, however brief, in Los Angeles and/or their other respective spots. The Lakers have rarely suffered a blatant miss in recent drafts (Anthony Brown, the No. 34 pick in 2015, is the only recent example).
Caruso, who was plucked from under the Thunder’s nose and signed out of the G League, is among their most notable discoveries. He’s become one of the most recent role players to successfully transition from the G League to the NBA. But the highlight, of course, is the Lakers drafting three consecutive All-Stars with their top-seven picks in 2014, 2015 and 2016: Randle (No. 7), Russell (No. 2) and Ingram (No. 2), respectively.
While the Lakers certainly had many swings at finding productive prospects, they almost always hit singles, at a minimum, and didn’t botch their lottery picks the way some bottom-tier organizations often do.
“I think the Lakers have done extremely well in the draft,” Vecenie said. “Obviously, hitting in relative terms on guys like Lonzo and Ingram at the top has been nice, but it’s more their work in the late first and early second round that stands out. Clarkson at 46 in 2014. Nance in 2015. Zubac in 2016. All of Kuzma, Hart and Bryant in 2017. Even Svi in 2018.
“Not all of these guys were consensus picks where they were taken at the time, but all have forged solid to very good NBA careers. That’s seven guys in five years pre-Anthony Davis trade, which really is just insane.”
On draft night, the Lakers will face the familiar challenge of finding a late-first-round gem. While many teams draft for fit or upside, or based on age or pedigree, the Lakers’ view on the draft is straightforward: They want the best player available, even if the player doesn’t fit a conventional mold. He can be an 18-year-old or a 23-year-old. A freshman or a fifth-year senior. It doesn’t matter, as long as the Lakers see his potential.
“Our process here tends towards being very meticulous, very detailed, very strategic, in terms of how we evaluate players, how we collaborate between the front office and the scouts, the amount of information and tape and in-person observations that we have,” Pelinka said. “… You can’t make emotional decisions on draft night. And if you’re methodical from the beginning, then you can be confident with the final result.”
If the Lakers keep the No. 22 pick, they will do so based on their confidence from thousands of hours of information-gathering: scouting prospects at games and practices, monitoring background intel and injury history from draft reports, poring over game film and analytics and hosting their recent draft workouts.
During the draft, they consult their draft board, which has been one of the scouting department’s lone constants during three regime changes over the past four-plus years (from Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, to Johnson and Pelinka, to now just Pelinka). Pelinka respected the scouting department’s success and process, making minimal changes.
The board is a tiered one-through-60 consensus ranking that is compiled by the scouting department — Buss, Irving Thomas, Sean Buss, Luca Desta, Elan Vinokurov, Antonio Maceiras, Can Pelister and Moses Zapata — and the rest of the front office. Pelinka calls the draft board a “mosaic of information” that includes the Lakers’ analysis of a player’s skills, talent, character and fit with the organization’s culture and roster.
“That tends to be the guide,” Pelinka said.
Buss, who has been the director of scouting since 2012 and was promoted to a dual role of assistant general manager in 2015, is one of the other constants during the regime changes. He oversees the organizing of the board, consulting with the rest of the scouts and then finalizing the order with Pelinka. Buss has had a key voice in all of the Lakers’ drafts and has developed into one of the best scouts in the league.
Unlike some organizations who have unilateral decision makers, the Lakers encourage debate in the lead-up to the draft as they complete their board, allowing each scout and front-office member to make a case for a certain player (or players) and to rearrange the board until it’s finished.
“Draft rooms and draft discussions can get heated,” Pelinka said. “But that’s a good thing. We don’t want echo chambers. We don’t want voices in the room that just agree with leadership. We want everyone to feel strongly, and we encourage that. I think that’s important.”
Once their draft board is finalized, the Lakers stick to their ranking — rarely, if ever, wavering. Basically, the board simplifies the decision-making process amid the chaos of draft night. So far, it hasn’t steered the Lakers wrong.
“We don’t leave any stone unturned,” Buss said. “We put a lot into this process and we take it very seriously, and we want to be the best we can possibly be at our jobs.”
Drafting well has its downside, insofar as it’s nearly impossible for a team to retain all of its young core.
One of the reasons the Lakers don’t get the credit they deserve and aren’t regularly mentioned alongside teams like the Thunder, Spurs, Heat and Raptors — franchises that have earned reputations as the best talent evaluators in the NBA — is because many of their draft picks have ultimately thrived elsewhere.
Russell became an All-Star in Brooklyn. Ingram was an All-Star in New Orleans. Randle was an All-Star in New York. Clarkson was a Sixth Man of the Year in Utah. Bryant became a starting center in Washington.
Those are all Laker draft picks, though.
The Lakers’ retention rate of their young talent over the years has been relatively low. Some of that was due to the inevitability of rebuilding the organization around two superstars in James and Davis (the historic haul required for the Anthony Davis trade, pursuing cap space for free agents). But some of it was undeniably self-inflicted (not attempting to re-sign Randle, trade-dumping Zubac for Mike Muscala, waiving Bryant).
In the big picture, it’s difficult to criticize the Lakers’ results, even if the process wasn’t perfect: They signed James, traded for Davis and won the championship in 2020 (and would’ve had a legitimate shot at repeating if not for Davis’ first-round injury).
But the only remaining players from the aforementioned list of rookie Lakers are Kuzma, Caruso and Horton-Tucker (and Caruso and Horton-Tucker are pending free agents). The only players to play more than three years as Lakers are Randle, Kuzma and Caruso (each has played four seasons for Los Angeles). There has been a lot of turnover with their younger players.
Despite the Baby Lakers (remember that nickname?) maturing in new situations, the Lakers are proud that their former players have gone on to have success elsewhere. That confirms, in their eyes, that they made the right choices in the draft and have built a successful environment and culture.
“You’re going to make trades, and trades are hard because all the players that come through here and wear the Lakers jersey will always be Lakers,” Pelinka said. “If we draft a player and a decision is made to do a trade that we feel like betters the probability to win a championship, and that player goes on to another team, we take great pride when they soar and when they excel.
“It’s just something that we want to happen. Whether a coach leaves here and goes to another team and does great. We want to have a Lakers tree for coaches, executives, players, that this is a good place to be trained and to grow.”
Buss added: “We’re always rooting for whoever has had the chance to be a Laker, and especially when it comes to past draft picks. It’s kind of our mantra that once a Laker, always a Laker.”
With Caruso and Horton-Tucker entering free agency this August, the Lakers will once again have their retention ability tested. Horton-Tucker, 20, is a promising scorer and playmaker who’s somehow younger than some of the projected first round. He was the Lakers’ only rotation player under 25 last season, as the Lakers had the oldest roster in the NBA. Caruso, 27, is one of the best perimeter defenders and third guards in the league.
Both free agents are expected to command multiyear deals in the neighborhood of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($9-10 million annually), applying pressure to the Lakers as they juggle the short- and long-term needs of the roster — including potentially replacing a rotation player with their draft pick.
Since July 7, the Lakers have officially worked out more than 40 prospects for the No. 22 pick, as well as the possibility of trading up or down in the draft, or acquiring another pick. There are several scenarios still in play, depending on how the draft unfolds and if other contenders make trades.
After a year and a half of isolation and quarantine, the Lakers are excited to have their practice facility open again for draft workouts. Last season, there were severe limitations on the parameters of workouts, including where and when they could be held and how many people could be in attendance. (The Lakers didn’t have a pick, but they wanted to do their due diligence anyway.)
“It’s been great,” Pelinka said of the recent draft workouts. “I mean, our building was built by (governor) Jeanie (Buss) and her family, the basketball players in here. It was so tough during the pandemic for this to be a quiet place. Just to have draft candidates coming through and the energy and balls bouncing and guys competing, that’s the lifeblood of our training center.
“So it provides the energy, and our scouts have been here and are having those draft workouts in person. (It) has really brought a lot of excitement for us as we head into the draft.”
Like any business, the Lakers dealt with challenges during the pandemic — notably in the scouting department, which is as travel-based as any job in the NBA. Travel restrictions made the job more challenging. But one of the unintended consequences has been a streamlined process for the scouting department, spending more time conversing and working together digitally, and watching more film overall with the time saved from not traveling as much.
“I think the amount of time and togetherness that the front office and scouts have been able to digitally scout, watch film, do Zooms, has really, in some sense, instead of being dispersed all over the world, created a unique togetherness,” Pelinka said. “And that was unexpected.”
The Lakers will never stop traveling for scouting — that is still the most effective way to evaluate a player — but there are benefits to watching film remotely. The scouting department was actually able to watch more games and clips together than ever before, leading up to the final two weeks before the draft in which the group bunkers down for roughly eight hours a day to watch prospect tape and finalize the draft board.
“A lot of our scouts, including myself, were watching three, four games every single day,” Buss said. “And that’s probably something we couldn’t have done, given our traveling schedule and having to take flights all the time. Now, nothing will ever replace in-person scouting and being able to see a guy up close. But I think it was a method that we will look to kind of introduce more and see where it goes from there.”
As for the value of a late first-round selection, Vecenie believes the Lakers should be willing to trade it if they can attach a player and find an upgrade, given their win-now needs. The likelihood of the No. 22 helping the Lakers next season is slim, even with their track record. The Lakers are aware that there is no consensus in the draft outside of the lottery and are preparing for various scenarios.
“The value of a pick in the 20s is just OK,” Vecenie said. “I think the Lakers should probably explore all avenues toward improvement for the 2022 season, so I’m not married to keeping the pick if I was them. The Lakers have enough midsize contracts to where they can get involved in a deal for basically any player in the league in terms of price point; it’s just whether or not the asset value is there.
“If they can make a bit of a splash, I’d be fine moving the pick.”
On one hand, the Lakers view the draft as a competitive advantage given their limited resources to improve the roster because they are a capped-out team. On the other hand, they have a toward-the-end-of-his-historic prime James and an in-his-prime Davis, meaning every decision the organization makes must be geared toward prioritizing the talent on next season’s roster and maximizing L.A.’s championship window.
It’s a difficult decision, one the Lakers are still deliberating as the draft approaches.
“Whether we’re in a championship window or not, we want to put everything we have into our young players and to develop them,” Pelinka said. “And I think if you look around at our draft picks, it’s not just that we’ve made good picks, but we’ve also, at the start of those players’ careers, put them on a great development path that catapults them to their future, and we take pride in that.
“I think a lot of times, people just see the Lakers and banners, but they don’t know that there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes where there’s a commitment to that with our young players.”
The commitment starts in El Segundo, with the ball on the baseline and 90 seconds on the shot clock.
At the end of every Lakers draft workout inside the UCLA Health Training Center in El Segundo, Calif., each prospect lines up on the baseline with a basketball. There is 90 seconds on the shot clock.
All eyes are on the player during the “Kobe Mentality drill” — Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka, assistant general manager, director of scouting and co-owner Jesse Buss, head coach Frank Vogel, the Lakers’ scouting department, assistant coaches and a few other staffers.
The player has to make as many shots as they can during the allotted time. They can only shoot once on each side of the floor, meaning they have to quickly sprint from basket to basket as they rebound their attempts. A layup is worth one point, a midrange shot is worth two, and a 3-pointer is worth three.
The drill, invented by Pelinka, was first introduced during the Lakers’ 2017 draft workouts, shortly after Pelinka and former president of basketball operations Magic Johnson joined the franchise. Publicly, the drill has been dubbed the “Lakers Mentality drill,” with prospects often mentioning it as a unique wrinkle during their Laker workouts. But internally, the Lakers call it the “Kobe Mentality drill,” a nod to Bryant’s legendary competitiveness, conditioning and mental toughness.
“It’s a tough one,” 2021 draft prospect Trey Murphy III recently said of the drill. “It’s a really tough one.”
Here’s a video, captured by The Athletic’s Bill Oram, of Grizzlies wing Grayson Allen going through the drill in 2018.
While speaking over the phone to The Athletic last week, Pelinka declined to share the origin or specifics of the drill, but he offered a glimpse into his evaluation of the exercise.
“It’s really a test of, ‘OK, it’s one thing to walk in the gym fresh and move and shoot and be effective. But how are you playing basketball once you’re exhausted, once you’re past your limits?’” Pelinka told The Athletic. “Because that’s the fourth quarter. That’s when the game’s on the line. Can you perform at a high level when you’ve spent everything you have? And that’s the mentality that we know Kobe always played with. And so we have drills that test that fortitude.”
The Lakers’ workouts, according to dozens of prospects over the past half-decade or so, have been among the most challenging — mentally and physically — in the NBA. The Lakers want to push players to their limits to observe how they respond.
“At the end of the day, we want to see how competitive a player is,” Buss told The Athletic. “And being able to deal with fatigue and being exhausted is definitely a giant factor in that.”
The Lakers currently have the No. 22 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft on Thursday. That could change at any moment. The Lakers, determined to redeem themselves after last season’s disappointing first-round exit to the Suns, are trying to dramatically upgrade their roster for next season. To do so, they’d almost certainly have to include their best tradeable asset, which is their 2021 first-round pick.
The Lakers have explored all scenarios with the pick: keeping it, moving up or down in the draft and packaging the pick with one of their rotation players under contract — Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Kyle Kuzma are the only logical options — to improve the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
But a draft-night trade is far from guaranteed, particularly when factoring in the Lakers’ impressive recent draft history. If any team in the NBA can find a rotation player outside of the lottery, it’s the Lakers, who have repeatedly done so since 2013. As Los Angeles sifts through dozens of prospects for the No. 22 pick, one of the deciding factors will be players who exude the vaunted “Kobe Mentality” — competitiveness, work ethic, fortitude — qualities that the organization has pursued since Pelinka’s arrival.
“I’m not sure any other team can match their draft track record, and that’s before even something like prioritizing Alex Caruso as an undrafted free agent,” The Athletic’s draft expert Sam Vecenie said. “The Lakers’ front office has a really keen eye in finding good players late.”
The list of successful Lakers draft picks over the past seven years is wide-ranging, from players in the lottery to undrafted rookie free agents: Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr., Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac, David Nwaba, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Caruso, Thomas Bryant, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Talen Horton-Tucker.
Those are all modern-day rotation players. Even Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Tarik Black and Ryan Kelly have had relevant moments, however brief, in Los Angeles and/or their other respective spots. The Lakers have rarely suffered a blatant miss in recent drafts (Anthony Brown, the No. 34 pick in 2015, is the only recent example).
Caruso, who was plucked from under the Thunder’s nose and signed out of the G League, is among their most notable discoveries. He’s become one of the most recent role players to successfully transition from the G League to the NBA. But the highlight, of course, is the Lakers drafting three consecutive All-Stars with their top-seven picks in 2014, 2015 and 2016: Randle (No. 7), Russell (No. 2) and Ingram (No. 2), respectively.
While the Lakers certainly had many swings at finding productive prospects, they almost always hit singles, at a minimum, and didn’t botch their lottery picks the way some bottom-tier organizations often do.
“I think the Lakers have done extremely well in the draft,” Vecenie said. “Obviously, hitting in relative terms on guys like Lonzo and Ingram at the top has been nice, but it’s more their work in the late first and early second round that stands out. Clarkson at 46 in 2014. Nance in 2015. Zubac in 2016. All of Kuzma, Hart and Bryant in 2017. Even Svi in 2018.
“Not all of these guys were consensus picks where they were taken at the time, but all have forged solid to very good NBA careers. That’s seven guys in five years pre-Anthony Davis trade, which really is just insane.”
On draft night, the Lakers will face the familiar challenge of finding a late-first-round gem. While many teams draft for fit or upside, or based on age or pedigree, the Lakers’ view on the draft is straightforward: They want the best player available, even if the player doesn’t fit a conventional mold. He can be an 18-year-old or a 23-year-old. A freshman or a fifth-year senior. It doesn’t matter, as long as the Lakers see his potential.
“Our process here tends towards being very meticulous, very detailed, very strategic, in terms of how we evaluate players, how we collaborate between the front office and the scouts, the amount of information and tape and in-person observations that we have,” Pelinka said. “… You can’t make emotional decisions on draft night. And if you’re methodical from the beginning, then you can be confident with the final result.”
If the Lakers keep the No. 22 pick, they will do so based on their confidence from thousands of hours of information-gathering: scouting prospects at games and practices, monitoring background intel and injury history from draft reports, poring over game film and analytics and hosting their recent draft workouts.
During the draft, they consult their draft board, which has been one of the scouting department’s lone constants during three regime changes over the past four-plus years (from Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, to Johnson and Pelinka, to now just Pelinka). Pelinka respected the scouting department’s success and process, making minimal changes.
The board is a tiered one-through-60 consensus ranking that is compiled by the scouting department — Buss, Irving Thomas, Sean Buss, Luca Desta, Elan Vinokurov, Antonio Maceiras, Can Pelister and Moses Zapata — and the rest of the front office. Pelinka calls the draft board a “mosaic of information” that includes the Lakers’ analysis of a player’s skills, talent, character and fit with the organization’s culture and roster.
“That tends to be the guide,” Pelinka said.
Buss, who has been the director of scouting since 2012 and was promoted to a dual role of assistant general manager in 2015, is one of the other constants during the regime changes. He oversees the organizing of the board, consulting with the rest of the scouts and then finalizing the order with Pelinka. Buss has had a key voice in all of the Lakers’ drafts and has developed into one of the best scouts in the league.
Unlike some organizations who have unilateral decision makers, the Lakers encourage debate in the lead-up to the draft as they complete their board, allowing each scout and front-office member to make a case for a certain player (or players) and to rearrange the board until it’s finished.
“Draft rooms and draft discussions can get heated,” Pelinka said. “But that’s a good thing. We don’t want echo chambers. We don’t want voices in the room that just agree with leadership. We want everyone to feel strongly, and we encourage that. I think that’s important.”
Once their draft board is finalized, the Lakers stick to their ranking — rarely, if ever, wavering. Basically, the board simplifies the decision-making process amid the chaos of draft night. So far, it hasn’t steered the Lakers wrong.
“We don’t leave any stone unturned,” Buss said. “We put a lot into this process and we take it very seriously, and we want to be the best we can possibly be at our jobs.”
Drafting well has its downside, insofar as it’s nearly impossible for a team to retain all of its young core.
One of the reasons the Lakers don’t get the credit they deserve and aren’t regularly mentioned alongside teams like the Thunder, Spurs, Heat and Raptors — franchises that have earned reputations as the best talent evaluators in the NBA — is because many of their draft picks have ultimately thrived elsewhere.
Russell became an All-Star in Brooklyn. Ingram was an All-Star in New Orleans. Randle was an All-Star in New York. Clarkson was a Sixth Man of the Year in Utah. Bryant became a starting center in Washington.
Those are all Laker draft picks, though.
The Lakers’ retention rate of their young talent over the years has been relatively low. Some of that was due to the inevitability of rebuilding the organization around two superstars in James and Davis (the historic haul required for the Anthony Davis trade, pursuing cap space for free agents). But some of it was undeniably self-inflicted (not attempting to re-sign Randle, trade-dumping Zubac for Mike Muscala, waiving Bryant).
In the big picture, it’s difficult to criticize the Lakers’ results, even if the process wasn’t perfect: They signed James, traded for Davis and won the championship in 2020 (and would’ve had a legitimate shot at repeating if not for Davis’ first-round injury).
But the only remaining players from the aforementioned list of rookie Lakers are Kuzma, Caruso and Horton-Tucker (and Caruso and Horton-Tucker are pending free agents). The only players to play more than three years as Lakers are Randle, Kuzma and Caruso (each has played four seasons for Los Angeles). There has been a lot of turnover with their younger players.
Despite the Baby Lakers (remember that nickname?) maturing in new situations, the Lakers are proud that their former players have gone on to have success elsewhere. That confirms, in their eyes, that they made the right choices in the draft and have built a successful environment and culture.
“You’re going to make trades, and trades are hard because all the players that come through here and wear the Lakers jersey will always be Lakers,” Pelinka said. “If we draft a player and a decision is made to do a trade that we feel like betters the probability to win a championship, and that player goes on to another team, we take great pride when they soar and when they excel.
“It’s just something that we want to happen. Whether a coach leaves here and goes to another team and does great. We want to have a Lakers tree for coaches, executives, players, that this is a good place to be trained and to grow.”
Buss added: “We’re always rooting for whoever has had the chance to be a Laker, and especially when it comes to past draft picks. It’s kind of our mantra that once a Laker, always a Laker.”
With Caruso and Horton-Tucker entering free agency this August, the Lakers will once again have their retention ability tested. Horton-Tucker, 20, is a promising scorer and playmaker who’s somehow younger than some of the projected first round. He was the Lakers’ only rotation player under 25 last season, as the Lakers had the oldest roster in the NBA. Caruso, 27, is one of the best perimeter defenders and third guards in the league.
Both free agents are expected to command multiyear deals in the neighborhood of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception ($9-10 million annually), applying pressure to the Lakers as they juggle the short- and long-term needs of the roster — including potentially replacing a rotation player with their draft pick.
Since July 7, the Lakers have officially worked out more than 40 prospects for the No. 22 pick, as well as the possibility of trading up or down in the draft, or acquiring another pick. There are several scenarios still in play, depending on how the draft unfolds and if other contenders make trades.
After a year and a half of isolation and quarantine, the Lakers are excited to have their practice facility open again for draft workouts. Last season, there were severe limitations on the parameters of workouts, including where and when they could be held and how many people could be in attendance. (The Lakers didn’t have a pick, but they wanted to do their due diligence anyway.)
“It’s been great,” Pelinka said of the recent draft workouts. “I mean, our building was built by (governor) Jeanie (Buss) and her family, the basketball players in here. It was so tough during the pandemic for this to be a quiet place. Just to have draft candidates coming through and the energy and balls bouncing and guys competing, that’s the lifeblood of our training center.
“So it provides the energy, and our scouts have been here and are having those draft workouts in person. (It) has really brought a lot of excitement for us as we head into the draft.”
Like any business, the Lakers dealt with challenges during the pandemic — notably in the scouting department, which is as travel-based as any job in the NBA. Travel restrictions made the job more challenging. But one of the unintended consequences has been a streamlined process for the scouting department, spending more time conversing and working together digitally, and watching more film overall with the time saved from not traveling as much.
“I think the amount of time and togetherness that the front office and scouts have been able to digitally scout, watch film, do Zooms, has really, in some sense, instead of being dispersed all over the world, created a unique togetherness,” Pelinka said. “And that was unexpected.”
The Lakers will never stop traveling for scouting — that is still the most effective way to evaluate a player — but there are benefits to watching film remotely. The scouting department was actually able to watch more games and clips together than ever before, leading up to the final two weeks before the draft in which the group bunkers down for roughly eight hours a day to watch prospect tape and finalize the draft board.
“A lot of our scouts, including myself, were watching three, four games every single day,” Buss said. “And that’s probably something we couldn’t have done, given our traveling schedule and having to take flights all the time. Now, nothing will ever replace in-person scouting and being able to see a guy up close. But I think it was a method that we will look to kind of introduce more and see where it goes from there.”
As for the value of a late first-round selection, Vecenie believes the Lakers should be willing to trade it if they can attach a player and find an upgrade, given their win-now needs. The likelihood of the No. 22 helping the Lakers next season is slim, even with their track record. The Lakers are aware that there is no consensus in the draft outside of the lottery and are preparing for various scenarios.
“The value of a pick in the 20s is just OK,” Vecenie said. “I think the Lakers should probably explore all avenues toward improvement for the 2022 season, so I’m not married to keeping the pick if I was them. The Lakers have enough midsize contracts to where they can get involved in a deal for basically any player in the league in terms of price point; it’s just whether or not the asset value is there.
“If they can make a bit of a splash, I’d be fine moving the pick.”
On one hand, the Lakers view the draft as a competitive advantage given their limited resources to improve the roster because they are a capped-out team. On the other hand, they have a toward-the-end-of-his-historic prime James and an in-his-prime Davis, meaning every decision the organization makes must be geared toward prioritizing the talent on next season’s roster and maximizing L.A.’s championship window.
It’s a difficult decision, one the Lakers are still deliberating as the draft approaches.
“Whether we’re in a championship window or not, we want to put everything we have into our young players and to develop them,” Pelinka said. “And I think if you look around at our draft picks, it’s not just that we’ve made good picks, but we’ve also, at the start of those players’ careers, put them on a great development path that catapults them to their future, and we take pride in that.
“I think a lot of times, people just see the Lakers and banners, but they don’t know that there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes where there’s a commitment to that with our young players.”
The commitment starts in El Segundo, with the ball on the baseline and 90 seconds on the shot clock.
darthska
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Uuuummm, it's on the internet, sir. That means it definitely happened.
-foe
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I still don't understand why you're in favor of getting Westbrook. There are a thousand reasons why it's a terrible idea.
1. His contract would be an albatross
2. He can't shoot and there's a low efficiency scorer
3. He's not a good pick and roll player
4. He's a poor defender
5. He has his own injury concerns
Other than "I'm just a fan of his and I like him", He solves none of the big problems the Lakers have.
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Emotions
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yea westbrook for schroeder kcp and tht is ******* stupid
like really ******* stupid
like really really ******* stupid
the lakers would be done done done
like really ******* stupid
like really really ******* stupid
the lakers would be done done done
MVP
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Stop it bro Harrell, THT were both getting big minutes with Bron and AD out. And they were still a top 10 defense. They'll be vet min players that can play some D available. Our problem is we were a bad offense even with everybody healthy. You don't need to be as elite on defense if you can get easy baskets.
MVP
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If what doesn't work? The defense is going to take a hit in theory with Buddy and Russ absolutely, but our offense should be able to take a major jump with the shooting from Buddy and Russ pushing the pace in transition for easy baskets.
