Lakers Clear House & Put Magic Johnson In Charge

The biggest news of the day was Los Angeles Lakers firing nearly everybody including Jimmie Buss, the west coast’s James Dolan and longtime Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak. Jennie Buss, the owner of the Lakers, announced Magic Johnson will be taking over. This is a job that Magic wanted for quite some time and now he has it. Lakers ignored what happened with Sacramento this week and decided Magic can bring Lakers back to the glory years. The question is will he actually do it? There’s a ton at play here.
The first big question is will Lakers change course from their young guns? Rob Pelinka, a power agent, will be taking over as general manager, and he represents clients like James Harden, Avery Bradley and knows the class of 2017 pretty well through different avenues. What is his role in shaping the next generation of Lakers? As a Bucks fan, things can get really messy when you cater to bringing in everyone from the same agency. There have been good and bad things about it. Lakers have the third pick currently, and they could add another young star to their mix.
As we’ve seen with Philly, too many young players will lead to an odd man out. If Lakers think they know who that person is, they should trade him before Thursday. Clear the roster spot and get insane value before people know you’re desperate. You don’t think Milwaukee would be intrigued by a package surrounding Julius Randle or D’Angelo Russell? Brandon Ingram feels off the table considering the former Laker front office not pulling the trigger on a Boogie Cousins deal but who knows. Lakers already dealt Lou Williams to Houston today for a first round pick adding one more pick in a loaded draft. Russell or Randle would be immense value with the latter probably having more.
The other avenue is Los Angeles looks for a big-name talent like Jimmy Butler or Paul George and start building around them by giving up their young pieces. The same could be said for Russell Westbrook. Lakers have the clout to make these deals happen along with the ability to bring in free agents to get a blend of star power with great young talent. As long as Magic and the team don’t put together a Steve Nash/Dwight Howard past their prime team, I think they could be winners especially with Luke Walton at the helm.
The Lakeshow are now the most interesting team in the NBA because this can go in a hundred different ways. I look forward to Magic getting a pass from the media he befriended for all these years as well as the first screw-up to see how the team handles it.
Charlie.