I know you think you’re familiar, but take a look at the Lakers’ Basketball-Reference page for a moment. It’s like how you can’t quite fathom how long In Search of Lost Time is until you’re holding a boulder of a book in your hands. It’s staggering, when you look at the franchise’s history in its totality, how many deep playoff runs they’ve made. It’s similarly staggering that they just have not been bad for any extended period of time. Other organizations go through down cycles; the Lakers have aberrational years.
This is unfamiliar territory for the Lakers, then: They were awful this year in a way that doesn’t seem easily fixable. Mike D’Antoni recently stepped down as head coach, but D’Antoni was far from the only problem. In fact, it’s a little strange he’s leaving after this season in particular because he coached his team to the sort of record you might expect if you’re familiar with the basketball stylings of Robert Sacre and Xavier Henry. But fine: D’Antoni wasn’t working out.
What else needs fixing? Kobe Bryant is owed $48 million over the next two seasons. It’s a legacy contract, and it’s admirable that the organization is taking care of him, but brass tacks: He’s an old guy with a dodgy wheel we’re not sure will ever properly heal. The extra $25 million Mitch Kupchak is paying Kobe is money he can’t spend on anyone else, which is unfortunate, because anyone else is exactly who the Lakers need. The squad is a blank slate. Pau Gasol might move on — D’Antoni’s greatest sin was seeming not to understand that Gasol needs to be on the block, not floating in space — and we don’t know whether or not Steve Nash is going to retire. Regardless of what happens with those two, the Lakers are going to have plenty of cap space to sign whoever they want this summer, but I would be surprised if, say, Chris Bosh left South Beach to make the max and compete for a first-round playoff exit in Los Angeles. That probably doesn’t sound too appealing if you’re a Lakers fan, either.
This is not a particularly radical position for the Cleveland Cavaliers or Minnesota Timberwolves to take, but it’s un-Laker-like: Management should accept that the team likely isn’t going to be great for a few years. They don’t have a draft pick in 2015, so they gain nothing from being dreadful next season, but they could leave most of their cap space free and use it to soak up trade assets. Alternately, they could overpay a few decent free agents on short-term deals and put out a reasonably entertaining product. Whatever Kupchak chooses to do, he should keep an eye on the 2016-17 season, which is set to be the Lakers’ first Kobe-less year since 1995. SoE’s Shaun Powell wrote on Thursday about who the Lakers might be looking at for their vacant coaching position; I think they would do well to follow the example the Celtics set in bringing in Brad Stevens. Get a coach you believe in and be unequivocal that he’s going to be part of a long-term project. He’s not going to get fired simply for losing games.
The Lakers have been known to produce offseason miracles, but I think it’s safe to say LeBron isn’t going to be wearing purple and gold next year. Kupchak doesn’t have any particularly appealing options at his disposal. He can only try to draft well, make an inspired coaching hire and not spoil the medium-term future by trying to flank Kobe with veterans on overlong contracts. The Lakers have gone into many, many seasons thinking they had a chance to win a title. The next handful of years won’t be like that, and that’s OK. Sometimes you have to understand your limitations and try to work within them to achieve the best possible result. If you’re smart, that is.
