Future Looks Bright for Lakers and Clippers

The Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers made many changes to their rosters last summer through the NBA draft, free agency, and numerous trades.

The past few years have been horrible for the Lakers. They haven’t been able to win over 30 games per season and there is a missing presence of a team leader.

Former Laker Luke Walton was appointed as head coach last season and he proved himself to be to a great team bonder.

Team executive Jim Buss was also red and replaced with Magic Johnson, a Lakers legend.

“I’m happy Jim Buss is gone. The Jim Buss era ending was major for the franchise. The fact that Jim Buss is gone now, I believe, gives the Lakers franchise a lot more credibility to the other players in the league as well to look at L.A as a place to come,” said social science teacher Terrence Cormier.

Cormier gave the Lakers offseason a solid grade of a B.

The team’s young rising star D’Angelo Russell was traded along with Timofey Mozgov to get rid of Mozgov’s overpriced contract.

In return the team received California native Brook Lopez. The loss of Russell was surprising to many fans, but he was simply not a part of the Lakers’ future.

Hopefully the drafted UCLA superstar point guard Lonzo Ball will be able to ll that role, along with new faces like Lopez, Kyle Kuzma, and Kentavious Caldwell Pope.

Long time Laker fan DJ Hill, social science teacher, thinks that Ball is a great t for the Lakers and can surpass the success of Russell.

“I do, I think he can probably exceed what D’Angelo was doing. D’Angelo had the tendency to shoot rst and pass second. I think Ball will be the total opposite of that and get these guys going and playing the right way in Luke’s system,” said Hill.

There are many questions around Lonzo Ball wondering if he can live up to the hype.

He is a unique playmaker yet his game still has aws.

“I think that he’ll fail because he has an ugly jump shot that might affect him in the NBA against good defenders,” said junior Erin Yamane.

The Clippers, on the other hand, have also made extreme changes to their roster.

To fill in their weak spot at small forward, the Clippers acquired Danilo Gallinari from the Denver Nuggets who averaged an above average 18 points per game last season.

Star point guard Chris Paul was traded to the Houston Rockets in return for a protected rst round pick and a couple solid players including Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, and Patrick Beverly.

Paul was a huge part of the franchise and is a major loss, but the Clippers are now more well rounded.

The fate of the team now rests on Blake Griffin’s shoulders, who can hopefully help the team reach the playoffs like they have the past couple years.

Senior Mason Cortum, a Clippers fan, was not happy with the Clippers’ offseason.

Chris Paul was his favorite Clipper and he believes the Clippers will fall without him.

Cortum feels that Grif n would be a strong leader, but he needs the team to step up.

“I’m happy that he will be the star player now, but at the same time I think they need better players around him to make him better because this is a team sport and you can’t do everything yourself no matter how good you are,” Cortum said.

The future seems bright for both of these young teams.

With the NBA season starting on October 17th, we can only wait and see.