The Lakers is a veteran team, especially last year the roster was full of players in their 30s. It was a different picture a few years ago.
For six years in a row through 2013-2019 Los Angeles missed the playoffs. As a result the team acquired a whole bunch of high draft picks. The Lakers drafted the likes of Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Lonzo Ball.
Then the team signed LeBron James, next year the purple and gold traded for Anthony Davis and all of these players ended up on different teams. Since then all of those players became successful, some more than the others.
Clarkson, who has been with the Jazz for the last three years and who could return to the Lakers, thinks that having so many young stars on the roster was not going to work.
According to him, sending the young players to other teams allowed them to grow and become stars.
Via Mike DeStefano of Complex:
“I don’t think it ever was going to work with all of us being there. [Laughs.] I think we all were stars in our own right. Us separating and going into our home lanes was a good change of scenery for everybody. I see the tweets and all that stuff. It’s so funny to look back on it. I think the Lakers did a great job of scouting us, finding the talent, and giving us the opportunity by drafting us. But us all being on the same team, I don’t think it ever would’ve worked out. We probably wouldn’t have brought a championship back to them or none of that, you know what I mean? They got LeBron for us, whatever it is. It’s part of the game. All of us were stars in our own roles. We had to get a change of scenery to let us grow in other ways.”
