Winning Next Year

This year for the Lakers is about preparation, development and optionality for the next offseason. The goal of this season is to put Ingram and Ball into great position to develop and then succeed. The problem for them is the personnel in the currently constructed lineups. In a perfect world, you would surround Ball and Ingram with one elite playmaker and the rest of the team as role players of the 3 and D mold. Say you could construct a team with Ball, Westbrook, Ingram, Ariza and Noel. That would allow you space the floor and smother the team on the other end with elite length.

What the Lakers are hoping for next year could be very similar and utterly terrifying. But the key to this is development of the current players. Say the best case scenario happens, Paul George and LeBron James bring their talents to LA, they will still not have enough firepower to take down the super teams of the West. Ball, Ingram, PG, LeBron, (Center) could have the potential to be an absolute force on the offensive and defensive end. They could theoretically switch every pick and roll and space the floor.

This brings me to hot take of my argument. They will have to rid themselves of both Jordan Clarkson and Luol Deng to have the money to make this happen. The deal for Luol Deng may perhaps be the worst contract in the NBA. Mozgov, at a position and height of necessity, can still manage to be serviceable in a few minutes each game. So to get rid of Luol Deng is going to require at least Julius Randle and probably a draft pick of some sort. Then they have three years left of Clarkson's contract at 11 mil + each year. To get rid of that would probably require a first round pick unprotected and Kyle Kuzma (if he continues to play well) plus some.

My point is this: The Lakers are positioned well to chase stars the next offseason but the difficulty will be offloading these contracts at a fair(ish) value. The problem is that the Lakers young players will have to play at a high enough level that they are worth attaching to these albatross contracts. So, if Randle continues to have games where he is -25, no team is going to take Deng's 17 mil per year on the off chance that he figures his game out. If Kuzma proves that he is not ready to go and Lonzo or Ingram don't make any jumps, then you are looking at packaging multiple young players just to get the chance to throw a contract at PG or LeBron. This season is all about setting up for a great season next year, but if they squander their chances and don't trade players at the peak of their value, they will be in trouble.