The LA Lakers are coming into the season looking to clear out some cap space to set up the team to target Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio, Greg Monroe or Marc Gasol next summer and that means a trade with Jeremy Lin or Steve Nash could be in the cards to help Kobe Bryant and the team to get in position to be a winner again after two years of basically being terrible.
The Lakers have a new head coach in Byron Scott and they have the chance to bounce back big if Kobe Bryant can stay healthy. Pro Basketball Talk put together the preview for the team and in the article they mentioned that part of the plan heading into this season was setting up for next summer and free agency. The Lakers clearly have fallen on hard times and after the Dwight Howard trade didn't work out and Bryant's injuries, the team needs a new superstar and a bit of an overhaul. PBT writes that the Lakers may try and clear out cap space again this season to set up for next year and the summer of 2016.
The Lakers had been looking at Kevin Love as the main target to take the team past the Bryant era, but the NBA and the way things work got in the way of that. Love was so high in demand that there was no way he wasn't getting traded and that happened this summer and now the Lakers have to figure out who to target next. Rajon Rondo, Ricky Rubio and Greg Monroe along with LaMarcus Aldridge and Marc Gasol all could be options for the team, while Iman Shumpert, Goran Dragic and a host of other skilled players also potentially could hit the market.
The Lakers also see the summer of 2016 being an option, as Kevin Durant will be on the market and while LA could be a longshot, they are going to go after him hard (and so is everyone else). The Lakers have been overtaken by the Clippers in their own city and building recently after decades of it being the other way and now LA sees this season as a major step in getting back to that glory. Bryant needs to stay healthy for at least the majority of the season if not all of it and the team is hoping the additions of Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer can help too. The team also drafted a young star in Julius Randle who has plenty of potential.
Losing Pau Gasol will be tough to make up, but having Boozer helps and the team also may get back a healthy Steve Nash finally after he missed time last season as well. The team will be tempted to try and trade Lin and Nash since they are on expiring deals and that could get teams to agree to take on those players. The Lakers could fire sale things if they don't go well heading into the trade deadline, but Scott said he thinks that this team can compete for a playoff spot. The Lakers won just 27 games last season and the Suns won 48 and missed the playoffs, so they will need to play drastically better this season to get that done.
