Lakers' Need To Prepare For Future Robs Them Of Chance To Gain Big Piece Of It (ding Article)

LOS ANGELES — Any Lakers fan who wanted the club to acquire Goran Dragic at Thursday's NBA trade deadline doesn't get it.

The Lakers' path back to relevance, because of how few assets they have, requires them to get pieces for the future without giving up pieces for the future.

Yes, it was a downer for the Lakers that the Phoenix Suns accepted the Miami Heat's offer of two first-round picks to rent Dragic for the rest of this season. The Lakers' best bet to land Dragic or Rajon Rondo as their next point guard via offseason free agency was not to trade these guys this season to new locales they might experience and adore.

Obviously, to give up so much for him, the Heat expect to re-sign Dragic after he opts out this summer. The Dallas Mavericks were thinking the same thing in surrendering draft picks and young talent to Boston for free-agent-to-be Rondo in December.

The Lakers weren't in position to do that sort of thing after already trying that to get Dwight Howard temporarily from an Orlando to team with Steve Nash. The Lakers still owe the Magic a conditional 2017 first-rounder to go with the 2013 and potentially 2015 first-rounders they agreed to give Phoenix for Nash.

So the Lakers have to value what precious picks they have all the more—they do also have Houston's first-rounder in 2015 for taking on Jeremy Lin's salary in trade—whether they want to build through the draft or trade the assets to get better quicker.

In any case, the Lakers will still be counting primarily on free agency—where you can add talent without yielding anything but money. They'll be watching to see if Dragic or Rondo wants to bolt anyway, along with indulging Jim Buss' ongoing hope that Kevin Love leaves Cleveland to be a free agent, too.

Dragic's sticking this summer with Miami, where there is a better core of players in place (including a Dwyane Wade younger than Kobe Bryant) and a greater chance for playoff success in the Eastern Conference, would definitely eliminate one of the Lakers' better options.

Dragic is a guy with a mentality that makes him unafraid of following in Bryant's footsteps and the pressure of a glamour franchise. He also has had intriguing brushes with the Lakers already—an enjoyably intense rivalry with fellow Slovenian guard Sasha Vujacic, being part of the nixed Chris Paul trade that would've set Dragic up to run New Orleans' team and taking an on-court punch from Nick Young last season.
Also, Dragic is a dear friend of Steve Nash and has a good impression of the Lakers organization from him. After failing to use Nash's expiring contract at the trade deadline to get an asset, the Lakers remain on the lookout for ways Nash can be useful (Nash did work out with Lakers rookie guard Jordan Clarkson on Monday).

The bottom line, though, is that Dragic is an outstanding player—third-team All-NBA last season alongside Damian Lillard, Paul George, LaMarcus Aldridge and Al Jefferson. And he has a gritty competitive fire that has been sorely lacking in Lakers players recently not named Kobe.

Now, though, the Lakers can only wait and see if things might go wrong for Dragic and the Heat—the same way the Lakers have to hope things go wrong for other talented players wherever they are pre-free agency.

Since little can be done on that front until July, attention turns toward the draft, where the Lakers are well on track to have a top-five pick (and postpone giving up the owed Nash pick now belonging to Philadelphia until next season, when it would be top-three protected).

For the record, though: The 10-43 Knicks just shut down Carmelo Anthony, the 11-42 Timberwolves traded Thaddeus Young and the 12-41 Sixers dumped Michael Carter-Williams. The 13-40 Lakers did not get tangibly worse at the trade deadline with the jostling for losses and draft position only intensifying.

That's a credit to the Lakers' basic position that they oppose the tanking philosophy, even though Lakers fans are largely embracing the unknown upside of kids the draft can bring.

What is fair to say is that things can't get any worse for the Lakers, even though they didn't improve any of their future prospects at the trade deadline Thursday.

These days of hoping bit players such as Clarkson, Ryan Kelly and Tarik Black get a little better will be replaced next season by some legitimacy: a free agent (even if it's not Dragic), almost certainly a top draftee, Julius Randle and Bryant's goodwill/farewell tour.

That's not a return to the glory days, but it'll be a lot more fun than this.

 

Nobody was talking about him as a player to have in FA before all this trade talk started. He puts us on his list and rumors come out that we will give him a max deal and all of a sudden he's the must have player at the deadline and FA. He's not some big loss, it's Goran Dragic. If we lost out on M Gasol or LMA, it's justified, but not for Dragic.

The media has a funny way of altering opinion.

 

^So does losing the way we've been for 2 years; by the way, I think Dragic is a net positive on the court. We may have paid him too much, but at least this time, we had the right player targeted...

 

Agreed. That will set us back.

 

losing the pick, long term, might not be that bad, as it would mean a) the lakers would be just freaking awful next year and thus b) would be looking at an even higher pick!

no, no, it would be terrible. but those of us who are worried about losing this year's pick need to be thinking that--now that most of the top FAs seem highly unlikely--that the lakers could very well be just as bad next year and be giving up the #4 pick in the draft instead of the #6 this year.

can I wake up from this nightmare? oh, and once again, eat excrement and expire, stern.

 

Stern should burn, anyway, we lost on Charles Barkley, too, and won 5 more titles. History repeats, we'll just have to wait.

 

I have tried to understand, but I am just not getting this reaction from some. I completely agree with the thought that Dragic has gone from a relatively unknown guy to some kind of franchise savior. He struggled to beat out Bledsoe and Thomas but he was going to some how lead us back to the promise land? I just don't see it. At all.

 

I don't think we were calling him savior by any stretch of the imagination. He's a nice player that would have a net positive for our team, requested to play here, was being recruited by Nash, and would play a role in helping us rebuild. People bring up the salary he was going to be making, and I didn't have a problem paying it with the increase in the cap. Trust me, it's much easier recruiting Durant with Dragic on your roster, a team full of young studs, than Price and or Lin.

If he wants to entertain us during the off-season and sign, he's more than welcome, too, IMO. Either way, he'll stay in Miami, and we'll continue to plow forward with our tank job. It's not the end of the world by any means. We'll end up back on top.

 

I wouldn't have been upset if we landed him and can him being a good third or fourth option on a good team. But, I can't fault Mitch and Buss for passing if the price was too high. I think the Heat are still a first round exit with him in the line-up. I wouldn't be surprised if he stuck with the Heat, but that's fine with me. Again, I wouldn't mind him at the right price, but I just don't think it was that big of a loss. I'd honestly much prefer taking a chance at a top five pick and being able to bring in Russell or Mudiay.

 

If we get the top 5 pick, and I'm optimistic we are. We'll see, though.

 

Dragic is ,at worst ,as good of a playmaker and offensive player as Bledsoe is and way better than Thomas

.... He had a great season in 13-14 but for some strange reasons the Suns brought Thomas on the team and decided to play Dragic more off the ball .

The main reason imo we don't have to be mad at not getting Dragic is it's not a priority to have one of the best players of your team at the PG position if you want to build a contender .

 

Right. However, we forget we went from 88-2000 without winning a championship. During the 90's, we had a team of Ceballos, Jones, Campbell, Van Exel, and other players that made up an entertaining and competitive squad that kept the fans interested until we recruited Shaq and drafted Kobe. There is times going to be times where we don't have the elite post-player at the Center position or Elite Slasher at the Wing position or a combination thereof to put us over the top. We have to start somewhere. Dragic or whomever we get this season has to be a place to start; ultimately, we all want to finish with banners in the rafters but that takes time to get there and isn't going to happen overnight.