The best and most appropriate reaction to the Lakers' luck Tuesday came from the Jerry Buss and Chick Hearn dolls sitting on James Worthy's desk.
Shaking, shaking, shaking their heads.
For their final act of the 2013-14 season, the Lakers tanked the lottery. More than a month after their final game, the Lakers managed one more loss. Long after it was supposed to stop getting worse, it just got worse.
The team with the sixth-worst record in the NBA will somehow draft seventh after those pingpong balls paddled the Lakers all over Times Square during a lottery drawing that felt like a contrived episode of "Survivor."
The final three teams were represented by a tall NBA legend from Philadelphia, a young woman from Milwaukee in a treacherously short dress, and a nerdy dude from Cleveland with a 1.7% chance of winning. Of course, the nerdy dude won. For the third time in four years, the Cavaliers will have the top pick, their general manager, David Griffin, clapping in glee while Julius Erving rolled his eyes in disgust and Mallory Edens — a Bucks co-owner's daughter and the newest Internet sensation — simply blushed.
The Cavaliers didn't deserve it. There should be a rule against giving another No. 1 overall pick to a team that spent last year's No. 1 overall pick on somebody who averaged two baskets per game. Does even Anthony Bennett remember Anthony Bennett?
The Lakers deserved better. They at least deserved to pick where they had finished. It was hard work, putting together the most awful season since they moved to Los Angeles 54 years ago. They should have been rewarded for their injuries, their incompetence, their dysfunction, and the fact that they somehow talked Mike D'Antoni into leaving town.
Heck, if the league was smart, it would have helped the Lakers move into the top three. Considering a new rumored NBA scheme surfaces about every month, why couldn't one have popped up now? Whatever happened to the idea of freezing an envelope, as conspiracy theorists claim the league did in 1985 so then-commissioner David Stern could blindly pull the New York Knicks out of the hat and give them the No. 1 pick and Patrick Ewing? Couldn't they have drugged up a couple of pingpong balls? Maybe shuffled a few cards on the way to the podium? The league was happy to block a trade that kept Chris Paul from the Lakers — couldn't it have finally paid for David Stern's misstep and evened things up?
The NBA needs the Lakers now like it needed the Knicks back then. The NBA needs the Lakers' glamour and drama. The NBA needs Kobe Bryant, in his final run, to be relevant again.
Saddled with the turmoils of dueling owners and an aging superstar, the Lakers desperately need a reason to believe in themselves next season. One of the first three draft picks would have made that happen. The seventh pick does not.
Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, Andrew Wiggins, and Dante Exum are guys who could have immediately made the sort of impact that would make the Lakers fun again. None of them is expected to be around at No. 7, which is a location currently occupied on draft boards by guys like Julius Randle, Aaron Gordon and Marcus Smart, none of whom will immediately make a well-coiffed courtside head spin.
Heck, the Lakers could have even traded one of the top three picks to Minnesota for Kevin Love, assuming the Timberwolves realize they need to get something for him now before he walks next summer. But there's no way anybody like Kevin Love is traded for something like a seventh pick.
Finishing outside the top three also effectively dumbs down the Lakers' coaching search. If they were convinced they could acquire a cornerstone player, they would have probably searched for a young and potentially cornerstone coach who could grow with the new star. But now, one wonders if they won't just grab a calm veteran like George Karl to steer them through the final years of Bryant before pushing reset again to accommodate whoever will lead them into the next era.
Granted, the Lakers had only a 6.3% chance of winning the lottery, and a 31% chance of dropping into the seventh spot, so Tuesday's fall — precipitated by Cleveland's leap — wasn't that unexpected. But, still, one could dream, and the Lakers sent their last No. 1 overall pick, Worthy, to New York with bobbleheads of past Lakers greats — Buss and Chick— in pursuit of that dream.
Big Game James was big-time crushed, beginning with the pre-lottery interviews, when ESPN's Heather Cox pointedly asked Worthy — and only Worthy — how it felt to watch his team stink all season.
"It was difficult … we had a plethora of injuries … we could never catch up," said Worthy.
They finished sixth. They will pick seventh. The chase continues.
Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles TimesAnda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Lakers' No. 7 lottery pick is anything but lucky
Dengan url
http://penyakitberbahayakan.blogspot.com/2014/05/lakers-no-7-lottery-pick-is-anything.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Lakers' No. 7 lottery pick is anything but lucky
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Lakers' No. 7 lottery pick is anything but lucky
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar