Lakers set foundation for future in another miserable season
LOS ANGELES (AP) — After years of upheaval and embarrassment, the Los Angeles Lakers are making progress. With a talented young core and stability on the coaching staff and in the front office, this proud franchise has begun the climb back to championship contention.
At least that’s what the Lakers are telling themselves after the worst fouryear stretch in team history came to a merciful end this week.
Los Angeles finished 2656 in its first season under new coach Luke Walton. That record is the Lakers’ best since their last playoff season in 2013, but it also reflects the current team’s sharp decline from a 10-10 start to the season.
“We knew coming down here, the chances of winning a lot of games wasn’t very high,” Walton said. “But we wanted to get in here and start working with the group and start building relationships and building toward something special, and I think that we did that. We’ve got a good group of young guys.”
The Lakers won just 16 games after November, and five of those were in an April winning streak that hurt the team’s chances in next month’s crucial draft lottery.
“There have been a lot of ups and downs that I figured were going to happen,” Walton said. “But until you really go through them, you don’t really know how to handle it. It’s been a great year working with these guys and watching them grow.”
There were positives: Walton’s Lakers scored 104.7 points per game in their highest-scoring campaign since 2009, and they made a nine-win improvement from last season, otherwise known as Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour.
D’Angelo Russell emerged as their leading scorer with 15.6 points and 4.8 assists per game, while rookie Brandon Ingram showed progress in realizing his tantalizing potential.
But the biggest development of their season happened in February: Owner Jeanie Buss fired longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak and dropped her brother, Jim, from his leadership role while putting Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka in charge of basketball operations.
The Hall of Fame guard and Bryant’s former agent will now be able to make offseason moves to shape the Lakers, and the entire front office is vocally behind Walton as its ideal coach.
The Lakers have a foundation. It’s time to see whether they can build something.