Will Lakers have a quicker rebuild than the Celtics?
By Bryan Rose
It’s been a long time since the NBA has seen two of their powerhouse franchises at the bottom of the league, let alone having such happen at the same time. Alas, that’s exactly what’s going on with both the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.
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Despite being two of the proudest franchises in professional sports, let alone the NBA, both the Celtics and Lakers sit towards the bottom of their respective conferences going into the season and pundits question if either team has the needed pieces to rebuild. If so, how quickly.
It’s a thought Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders struggled with as he attempted to figure out who would have the quicker rebuild between the two elite franchises.
"Boston vs. the Lakers I struggled with. I believe in LAL’s ability to attract free agent talent a bit more. But Boston does have a ton of draft picks, including their own this year and I like Smart slightly more than Randle.The Lakers have Randle, but more importantly cap space and a market that people theoretically want to come to. The big problem there is the lack of a 2015 pick though."
As Duncan suggests, the Lakers have routinely been the better draw for big name players though such took place under Dr. Buss, not the current ownership group ran by his son and daughter. They’ve struggled to keep the franchise at the same level, though they still are the Lakers and that in itself is reason to fear them if you’re a rival NBA franchise.
In terms of the Celtics, they appear to have a leg up on youthful depth and have Rajon Rondo as a trade asset, but it’s unknown if they want to truly move him at this time. Given that, it’s difficult to tell which franchise will have the quicker turnaround.