How to Fix the Lakers

“The Lakers are the best team in the west.” “They’re going to take down the Heat in the finals.” Those were some of the things we heard before the start of last season. The Lakers had just acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash to pair up with Kobe and Pau Gasol. It seemed like the Lakers had fixed all their problems and were on their way to competing for an NBA title. As we all know, that didn’t happen.  Instead, the Lakers were a major disappointment. They fired Mike Brown four games into the season and hired Mike D’Antoni as their head coach. Steve Nash got hurt early on in the season and was never the player the Lakers had traded for.  Pau Gasol only played in 49 games due to injury, and Kobe torn his Achilles late in the season. The Lakers were old, slow, and beaten down. In the off season they lost Dwight Howard to the Houston Rockets. Dwight left the Lakers; NOBODY LEAVES THE LAKERS! How do you leave one of the greatest franchises in all of USA sports? Dwight gets criticized a lot for being immature and dumb. But maybe Dwight wasn’t dumb.  In fact, maybe Dwight Howard is a genius and saw the fall of the Lakers coming. 

                The current state of the Lakers isn’t much different from last year. Old, slow and beaten, but last year there was hope and this year all hope is gone. Steve Nash may not see the floor because of injuries; Kobe came back from the Achilles and is now out six weeks with another leg injury. Pau Gasol hates Mike D’Antoni and was reportedly being shopped around by the Lakers. But no worries, the future is bright!! The Lakers gave Kobe a new contract (2 years 48million) before he stepped on the floor this year. That contract was bad when he signed it and it looks even worst now. Let’s give a 35 year old coming off major surgery 48million, WHAT COULD GO WRONG?!?!?! Next year Kobe and Steve Nash will make 32 million dollars. That is crippling for the Lakers cap. How are the Lakers going to compete with that? Sure they could sign another max player but what damage is Carmelo, Kobe and Steve Nash going to do? The Lakers need a restart button right now.

                Their draft situation isn’t great either. They do have their first round draft pick for this year but they don’t have first round picks in 2015 or 2017. They do have their picks in the 2016 and 2018 draft but these picks cannot be traded. Under the new CBA a team cannot trade draft picks in back to back years. So how do you fix the Lakers? They have to build through the draft. They need to get a pick in next year’s draft, you need picks in drafts in order to rebuild through the draft. The only way the Lakers can get a pick in 2015 draft is by trading Pau Gasol. Can the Lakers get a first round back for Pau? Yes they can. They’ll have to take a bad contract in return, but the Lakers should be open to it. They’re going to be bad in 2014-2015 so take a bad contract if it means you get a first round pick in return. For example the Lakers should call the Suns to see if they will take Pau Gasol for Emeka Okafor and a first round pick. Okafor is on an expiring deal so he doesn’t matter but the Lakers would receive a draft pick they desperately need. The Suns would be willing to trade draft picks for great players since they have four first rounder picks this year. That’s the type of deal the Lakers need to pull at the deadline. This year is over for the Lakers.  Kobe shouldn’t step on the floor; let him heal up for 2014-2015. The Lakers need a rebuild if they want more championships.