Given how they plan to handle the NBA offseason in 2024, the Los Angeles Lakers have left many puzzled. Los Angeles selected not to sign any new free specialists, kept its draft picks, recruited a first-year lead trainer, and kept up with that it was available to the right exchange without really finishing an arrangement. As a result, a lot of Lakers fans are asking the most straightforward questions: What exactly is the team hoping to accomplish in the near future? By the end of the regular season, Anthony Davis will be 32, while LeBron James will turn 40 in December. The Lakers appear to be in win-now mode based on these two facts, but the offseason seems to be going in the opposite direction.
In terms of what has been made public, Los Angeles has consistently stated that player development is their top priority, implying that the long-term vision is their top priority. However, with two All-NBA players on the roster, one strategy does not necessarily have to prevail over the other. When it comes to valuing draft picks and developing talent and making measured choices for immediate improvement, the Lakers can make better decisions. What are the Lakers hoping to accomplish this season and what must be their top priority now that this apparent strategy has been established?
Despite the fact that it is an essential objective to achieve, this may appear to be a lower standard than the Lakers are used to setting. With Davis and James, Los Angeles has won a championship and reached a second Conference Finals, but that has obscured a pattern of consistent inconsistency. The Lakers have either missed the playoffs or lost in the first round in each of the other four seasons under James, winning the title in 2020 and going deep in 2023. The Lakers would significantly contribute to setting a new annual standard if they won a playoff series in 2024 and 2025. Obviously, the objective is to advance past the second round; however, merely advancing past the first round would establish a new minimum standard.