NBA

Lakers Continue Major Organizational Changes

The LA Lakers will know their fate in the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery on May 16, 2017

The rumor that Kyle Lowry is considering coming to the Los Angeles Lakers doesn't sound far-fetched unless one considers his motivation for potentially leaving Toronto would be to chase an NBA title. In that case, the Lakers would be one of the last landing spots for the 31-year-old.

This, in a nut shell, is the off season life in Los Angeles.

Seemingly any and every potential free agent or trade target will inevitably be linked with the LA Lakers, regardless of how much sense the prospect makes for either the player or the team. If Kevin Durant wins a title with the Golden State Warriors, the story of how Durant owns a house in LA and can now come rebuild the franchise in peace will inevitably spark without any real basis.

While there appears to be genuine interest in Paul George coming to LA, the Indiana Pacers forward is on contract for another year, so getting George would likely involve giving up assets. While giving up largely unproven players to get an All-Star is not necessarily a raw deal, why would the Lakers give up anything if George truly wants to come to LA for free in one year's time anyhow?

The New York Knicks didn't display that level of thinking when they traded for Carmelo Anthony, and their nightmare with the Knicks superstar will seemingly never end.

Without a doubt, the Lakers expect to be active in free agency and in the draft. However, no one truly has any idea what the Lakers will and will not do because Lakers president Earvin "Magic" Johnson has only been leading the basketball side of the organization for about three months, and first-time General Manager Rob Pelinka has been at his post for an even shorter period of time.

So, what do we know?

For starters, the Lakers have not been sitting idly by since the end of their regular season in mid-April. Here's a quick summary of changes that the organization has undergone since the regular season finale whether by resignations or separations: Long-time Lakers assistant general manager Glenn Carraro left the franchise after 17 years; Strength and Conditioning coaches Tim DiFrancesco and Sean Light have moved on; Basketball Operations Coordinator Tania Jolly departed; Director Player Development Rondre Jackson is no longer with the team; and Director of Basketball Analytics Yuju Lee reportedly resigned rather than accept a reduced role.

The aforementioned changes were reported via the LA Daily News, ESPN, the LA Times and Bleacher Report, as well as confirmed publicly by a number of the people mentioned.

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Needless to say, Johnson and Pelinka are not afraid of change, and the Lakers are in fact changing from the top down. How much of that change lands directly on the court remains to be seen, but the team's move to a new state of the art privately owned practice facility guarantees to be only one of the long-term changes the team undergoes over the summer of 2017.

On the topic of the summer of 2017, the Lakers have a rather important date circled on their calendar: May 16. That is NBA Draft Lottery day, when the Lakers learn whether they keep their 2017 first round pick or ship it East to Philadelphia as the last remnants of the Steve Nash trade.

LA has a 46.9 percent chance of keeping its draft pick, which requires that the Lakers finish in the top three in the lottery. If LA does keep its pick, Johnson and Pelinka will have one more potential cornerstone franchise player or yet another potential bargaining chip on the trade market. Either way, keeping the draft pick would help the Lakers' situation in the present and in the future.

In addition to crossing fingers, toes and legs, the Lakers have also reportedly revamped their scouting structure into four tiers: College; International; NBA; NBA Development League.

With the exception of the college scouting unit that has yielded late draft value like Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. in recent years, the other segments expect to receive significant changes based on Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report.

Pincus also states that the team will continue to rely on international scout Antonio Maceiras, but the Lakers expect to add to his staff significantly. A quick peek around the league shows that the international NBA talent pool simply cannot be overlooked at this point. Even a look inside the Lakers' locker room at Ivica Zubac underscores this point.

From the generals in the front office to the lieutenants and foot soldiers beneath them, the Lakers are undergoing a massive structural reorganization at seemingly every level.

Seemingly, the only aspect of the Lakers that has not been drastically impacted by the new culture of change is the personnel on the court -- yet.

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