The Aging Lakers

I'm a Lakers fan. I admit it. I was born in Los Angeles back in the early days of the Magic & Kareem Era and have been following the team my entire life, from the highs to the lows. I was even sporting Laker gear during the Van Exel-era, so I'm not exactly what you'd call a bandwagoner.

But, with that being said, I'm not a Lakers apologist either. Far from it. I have no problem with calling them out when they do wrong, just like any other team.

Admittedly, I do tend to give Kobe a pass on most things, because he's Kobe, but something he said this morning prompted me to do a little research.

Asked why the Lakers are getting beat so often this season, Kobe responded, "we're too damn old". Which is true. He's right. The Lakers are too damn old. But, Kobe is the reason for that. As far as I know, he was the one who wanted to "win now", and supported the front office's decision to trade away all their draft picks over the last five years, and next five years to come for aged veterans.

Granted, this strategy has largely paid off. Kobe & Pau won their championships, and they did win "now"... err... then. But, the drawback to building a team like that is that you are almost assuredly throwing away your chance to win "later" or "consistently". Ideally, when a team is built organically, from the ground up, they don't flame out so abruptly, because they always have a steady stream of young players to put around their established veterans, via the draft. In the NFL, the New England Patriots are the perfect example of this strategy. They have a handful of key veterans that form their foundation, who they surround with a steady stream of fresh blood to keep them young.

The Lakers don't do that. They treat the draft like a trade supplement, at the behest of Kobe. So, it would seem to me that he has little right to complain about the age of his team.

With that being said, I do understand his frustration, and how the media works. He was in the moment, and the media asked him a question, so he answered honestly, and I can appreciate that. But, let's take a look at some of the young players the Lakers have passed up over the years because of him (to be fair, Mitch Kupchak doesn't have the greatest track record with the draft either. He's passed up some great players on his own accord for some pretty mediocre players - which is being nice - without any help from Kobe):

2006
Lakers Pick: Jordan Farmar, Cheikh Samb & JR Pinnock
Traded: Rajon Rondo (#21)
Could've Had: Rajon Rondo, Kyle Lowry, Shannon Brown, Paul Millsap

2007
Lakers Pick: Javaris Crittenton, Sun Yue & Marc Gasol
Traded: Marc Gasol
Could've Had: Marc Gasol, Jared Dudley, Arron Afflalo, Tiago Splitter, Carl Landry, Glen Davis, Ramon Sessions

2008
Lakers Pick: Joe Crawford
Traded: #28
Could've Had: Goran Dragic, Nikola Pekovic, Mario Chalmers, DeAndre Jordan, Omer Asik

2009
Lakers Pick: Toney Douglas, Patrick Beverley & Chinemelu Elonu
Traded: Toney Douglas
Could've Had: Toney Douglas, Jodie Meeks, Marcus Thornton, Danny Green, AJ Price

2010
Lakers Pick: Devin Ebanks & Derrick Caracter
Traded: Greivis Vasquez
Could've Had: Greivis Vasquez, Landry Fields, Lance Stephenson

2011
Lakers Pick: Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock, Chukwudiebere Maduabum & Ater Majok
Traded: #27
Could've Had: Chandler Parsons, Isaiah Thomas, Kyle Singler, Lavoy Allen, E'Twaun Moore

2012
Lakers Pick: Robert Sacre
Traded: #24, #55
Could've Had: Tony Wroten, Marquis Teague, Festus Ezeli, Jeff Taylor, Jae Crowder, Draymond Green


So, that's quite a bit of youth for the Lakers to have forfeited over the years. Don't you think? Did their strategy pay off? Well... yes & no. It worked well in Pau's case, but not so much in the case of Karl Malone & Gary Payton. And, we're starting to see that they did indeed mortgage their future (which is now their present) for the present (which is now the past).

But, the question is, could the Lakers have won with Rajon Rondo & Marc Gasol? I think they probably could've. And, they'd still be set up for the foreseeable future. And, if you factor in Kupchak's whiffs, they really could've stacked their team through the draft over the years. Just imagine a lineup of:

C - Marc Gasol
PF - Paul Millsap
SF - Chandler Parsons
SG - Kobe Bryant
PG - Rajon Rondo

and a bench of:

Arron Afflalo, SG
Nikola Pekovic, C
Omer Asik, PF
Greivis Vasquez, PG
Jae Crowder, SF

I think they would've done ok. But, of course, hindsight is 20/20.