You make half a good point. But you're confusing building through youth with tanking for better draft position. This is a false choice. Keep in mind that I'm not endorsing the current Laker half rebuild plan either. Having a bunch of expiring contracts every year isn't a viable strategy either. You need a solid team with cap flexibility. But to the first issue I raised:

You don't have to bottom out to rebuild. In fact, strategic multi-year tanking is not a successful team building strategy. It never has been.

Rebuilding with youth just means that the team can sign quality young-mid-20s players to tradable contracts. That way you're always fighting for a playoff spot, while being able to initiate trades for a superstar player. The important thing is to always be competitive, but to keep flexibility so as to take advantage of teams about to lose a player. READ: NOT TANKING

If you want to see the way the Lakers have built their teams in the past and want to see how the Lakers can be successful in the future, look at what the Rockets did post-Yao/McGrady. Then look at the Grizz and Bulls' rebuild strategies. Another example is the Phoenix Suns until they went nuts last PFF season and ruined everything. That's how LA built their teams under Dr. Buss, not just by "outbidding everyone." Shaq wanted to come to LA because the team was competitive and had a solid core and had the history of winning. He was going to get paid a ton by any team he went to and had mega offers from several teams. How do folks not remember that? I swear, it's like half of our sub learned about the 90s second-hand or something.

The draft is only important so much as you need to make sure and get a quality piece at your spot or make a trade to move and grab a guy. You don't build your team by destroying a winning culture and gutting a roster and praying the lottery balls fall your way.