The 2015-16 season for the Los Angeles has turned into the Kobe Bryant farewell tour. The wins are not coming and the franchise is headed towards yet another top draft pick after landing the No.2 selection last year. With a very young team, the Lakers will be desperate for a few stars to sign on in the offseason which may or may not happen as general manager Mitch Kupchak admits Bryant must retire before the Lakers can improve.
The Lakers are trying to transition as a team with a very young roster and become contenders again, but Bryant is slowing the process down. With the veteran prepared to step up at the end of the season, Kupchak admits he is anxious for the move to begin so everyone can move on and the Lakers can go through a proper rebuilding process.
"We cannot move on as a team until Kobe leaves," Kupchak said, via Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. "Part of that to me is painful because I've been here 20 years with Kobe. This is a year that's dedicated to Kobe and his farewell. From my point of view, it gives me complete clarity. ... We know what our [salary] cap situation is going to be like.... "We feel in the last two years that we've gotten at least five attractive young players,"
Kupchak is referring to the core group of youth involving Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D'Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr and Anthony Brown. However, this rebuilding process has been criticized as hurting the development of the younger players. There is no question the youth is getting plenty of chances to play this year, but they are not catching on like the team had hoped which is causing frustrations to boil over. Already this year Russell has been benched and now Randle is following suit as head coach Byron Scott says the forward has to grow up.
"He's got to grow up," Scott said, via ESPN.com. "Simple as that. I think the main thing I don't like is, when you take him out of a game, how he acts sometimes. But again, I chalk it up to immaturity and just being inexperienced at this level because it's going to happen again. I'm going to take him out of other games that he's not going to like."
The quicker the younger players develop for the Lakers, the quicker they become a desirable destination for free agents. Until then, the Lakers could try and acquire talent via trades. According to the Los Angeles Times, Nick Young leads the list of trade candidates for the Lakers while Lou Williams and Brandon Bass could be made available as well if desirable moves surface in the next two months.
