The Los Angeles Lakers are under new but familiar management and seem to be on their way to future success. Magic Johnson and Jeanie Buss are now the decision makers of the Lakers and have done well in their brief time in complete control. Getting Kentavios Caldwell-Pope, Lonzo Ball, and trading to have a large amount of cap space for next season were gargantuan moves that may prove important for their future.
The Lakers course to success was not always so clear cut, however. According to Bill Oram of The Orange County Register, Jeanie Buss began to be extremely worried about the direction of the franchise after last year’s signings, causing her to take control.
They had cycled through four coaches in five seasons and under their watch the Lakers won a combined 63 games in three full seasons. Last summer, they spent $136 million of precious cap space on veterans Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, who made little sense for the direction of the team.
“I just didn’t understand what the thought process was,” she said, “whether our philosophies were so far apart that I couldn’t recognize what they were doing, or they couldn’t explain it well.”
