The Fear of the Current State of the Lakers Franchise. the Draft Lottery, getting the number one pick, and Lonzo Ball

So much is going to happen on Tuesday I could not stay silent and not share how many people feel about the current Status of the Lakers. I must start off by saying Lakers fans are very privileged to have such a team legacy. I must also state I have been a Laker fan all my life. As a kid i was seeing Kobe getting traded to the Lakers and seeing the various championships being won. Yet this is a vastly different era we are in. The Lakers are in an Era they have never been before. This is a time of 4 consecutive losing seasons which most likely will continue for a while longer as the new organization leaders rebuild. So how long will this Era be? This is the fear we have on Tuesday with even getting a draft pick, which draft pick we get (if we even get one), and Lonzo Ball. On Tuesday we have two 1st round draft picks on the line which are the 2017 pick and 2019 Pick. Why this Draft pick is so crucial is because of how loaded this draft class is. One simply can google this and see how many various articles are written on how loaded this NBA draft class is. Thus by simply losing this pick it can cause the Lakers to lose the superstar of the future which in turn costs multiple years of rebuild time, and this does not include the fact the 2019 first round pick goes to Orlando. Yet this is the barely even the first worry of the night.All of this is compacted by seeing where the phoenix suns pick lands. If the Lakers lose the pick and the Suns keep a top 3 pick, the season’s ending 5 game win streak will go down as a nightmare. So many questions will arise and the regrets will be numerous. Let’s assume the Lakers keep the pick. If the Lakers are lucky enough to keep the pick the question now arises where does it land. Is it one, two or three? Talking to various people and seeing how many people feel where the draft pick lands does not really matter. In actuality some even prefer if the Lakers pick was the number 3 pick instead of going up to 2 or 1. Yet why is this? Shouldn’t we want to get the number one pick so we can draft the best player in the draft? Should we not want the number one draft pick? Aren’t number one draft picks amazing such as Karl Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, etc? Inevitably this all comes down to fear. This is the fear of responsibility, the lakers have been in a high place of draft responsibility for a while now. This is something not really known by many Lakers fans because the Lakers do not draft this high very much if at all. In the history of the NBA draft various key Mistakes have been made such as Greg Oden being taken over Kevin Durant and the same can be said about Micheal Jordon taken 2nd. Yet many Lakers fans can look back to recent draft results and see various decisions made. Some Lakers fans deeply regret the Lakers not taking Kristaps Porzingis. I currently am actually happy we took D’angelo Russell and we were smart enough to passed on Jahlil Okafor. This ultimately brings us to the issue of Lonzo Ball. This is something bothering NBA fan bases to a large degree. The current issue with Lonzo Ball is his father. Lavar Ball is currently touting his son as the once in a lifetime superstar prospect everyone will regret passing. In Lavar Ball’s words “He’s better than Steph Curry to me. Put Steph Curry on UCLA’s team right now and put my boy on Golden State and watch what happens.” So at the current moment Lonzo is better than the MVP of the NBA, So many more wild statements have been made by Lavar which has caused various fan bases to actually not even want to draft Lonzo Ball for the fear of what his father may bring to the franchise. This also puts tons of pressure on Lonzo ball to live up to his father words. Which in the end are to be an instant franchise changing superstar anything less would be considered a failure. Yet this is not what really stings me the most as a Laker fan. What Stings the most is actually the connection being made that there is no doubt the lakers will draft Lonzo ball if they get the number one draft pick. This is ridiculous. If you look at various websites such as Espn, tankathon, SI etc. the point being made that the lakers are the only lottery team to even pick Lonzo ball at number 1. Simply by checking out Tankathon and doing the simulation you see every team picks Markelle fultz at number 1 it is only the Los Angeles Lakers that take Lonzo Ball at number 1. Why the fuck are the lakers the only team to take Lonzo Ball at number 1? If every lottery team and the majority sports writers seems to believe that Markelle Fultz to be the unanimous number one pick. Why are the Lakers the only fucking team to pass Markelle Fultz at number one? Are the Lakers really that idiotic to the rest of the sports world not to take Markelle Fultz? In the end the various fears and worries being put forth don’t matter. Unfortunately at the current moment there is no simple solution to current state of the Lakers. It will take time how much time is the question. Then at this time let us simply hope we keep the draft pick and not regret the various actions made the last week of the regular season. But if we do lose the draft pick let us hope the suns drop out of the top 3 as well. Please feel free to reply with your opinions and feelings as we get closer to the draft Lottery.

/r/lakers Thread Parent