Are the Lakers unable to develop their young players? This is the shock opinion released by a former champion with the Warriors recently. However, it may well be that he is not completely wrong… Especially since recent examples are not lacking.
The 2010 decade was very complicated for the Lakers, who notably experienced the retirement of Kobe Bryant and several years away from the playoffs. During this time, they have effectively squatted the first places in the draft with several picks in the Top 10. Except that none of these nuggets is still a resident of the Crypto.com Arena today, having been sacrificed in the goal of building the current superteam.
However, it is clear that once they set sail, these players began to shine all over the league. Once, it would be a coincidence, but there, it is a trend that is emerging. Festus Ezeli, former Warriors pivot and NBA champion, therefore asked a particularly divisive question on Twitter: would the Purples and Golds simply be unable to develop young people properly?
Festus Ezeli releases a cash report on the Lakers
All the young players that apparently sucked in LA (Lonzo, Caruso, Ingram, Randle, Hart) all got traded and all have been key players for other franchises, some all stars and franchise players
Is LA just a tough place to play? Is it distracting? What is it?
— Festus Ezeli (@FestusEzeli) January 16, 2022
All the young players who seemingly sucked in LA (Lonzo, Caruso, Ingram, Randle, Hart) were all traded and all became key players for other franchises, some all stars and franchise players.
Is LA just a tough place to play? Is it a source of distraction? What is that ?
In fact, it is true that the Angelinos are in no way specialists in reconstruction by the draft. Apart from Kobe Bryant in 1996 (and again, following a trade with the Hornets), no major player in the history of the franchise has been recovered like this for decades. Moreover, it was necessary to bring LeBron James via the free agency, then Anthony Davis thanks to a trade to get the title obtained in 2019-20, in the Orlando bubble.
A success which has however been achieved at the expense of a promising youth, and which poses a serious problem for the medium-term future of Californians. Once the King retires, AD should in theory take over the reins. Except that The Brow is often injured, and he will have to have a good squad around him anyway to hope for something. However, it is unlikely that the leaders will then give a lot of patience to the new generation of players.
Some Lakers fans won’t take kindly to the accusation, but Festus Ezeli is right about one thing: the former home fledglings are faring much better away from the City of Angels. And in the case of Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball in Chicago, the collective level is light years away from Purples and Golds…
