The Los Angeles Lakers have learned how to pick talented and promising players in recent years. However, they haven’t seen those guys fulfill their potential on the team, just when they leave the franchise. We have seen several cases of this in recent seasons and although the team is doing more than fine now, you can’t help but wonder how good they would be now if they kept at least two or three pieces from those rebuilding years.
Recently, The NBA Central shared a picture of four former Lakers players during their time with the team: Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, and Julius Randle. As you may know, all of the players developed and turned into big names in the league, some more than others, but every player in the picture made a name of themselves after leaving the franchise.
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 16, 2021
This sparked something inside Lakers and NBA fans, who started debating about the best and worst player in the picture, what would have happened if they stayed in Los Angeles, and even how different things would have been if LeBron James decided to develop them (at least Ingram) instead of trading the young core in exchange for Anthony Davis.
https://twitter.com/Officialj0nn/status/1361534323455889410
But Lakers put cast them aside and didn’t treatment them like stars. Especially when Lebron came along. AD may have helped Lakers win a chip but at the end of the day, as a night shift Pels fan I believe they will ultimately win the trade
— Popcornblast (@PopBlastNoah) February 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/bamaddamayo/status/1361534307274285057
Ngl D’lo a bit overrated
— Brotha Brotha (@giles_mind) February 16, 2021
Lmaooo put Dlo on the jazz they’re title contenders
— Mike Baga (@MikeBaga1) February 16, 2021
Ingram was the only one who played with Lebron idiot
— Chrisitis (@Chris09452583) February 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/nsitto2/status/1361537562679140355
If lakers kept these 4 and drafted Tatum over Lonzo, that’s a DYNASTY, not this circus fluke 2 year window they have currently
— 7even (@OnyxMcGrady) February 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/MawuleOfficial/status/1361534911098798080https://twitter.com/NtiliG0AT/status/1361535025938796555
Every former Laker players like a beast 👀👀👀
— Ali (@Ali_Szn14) February 16, 2021
D LO is the worst one here
— Brotha Brotha (@giles_mind) February 16, 2021
Crazy that you can make an argument that DLo is the worst rn
— larry bird (@beastguy12345) February 16, 2021
Who would’ve thought D Lo would turn out to be the worst player in this photo
— PJ (@pizza_91) February 16, 2021
randle is the best player in this picture
— mike (@mthom46) February 16, 2021
These posts always bring a lot of debates and make people imagine how good or bad one team would have been but the only certain thing is that these players are ballin’ right now. They were paid last year and that shows how well they have developed. Moreover, they showed they were deserving of those contracts with their performances this year.
While Russell hasn’t been the same player we saw in Brooklyn and is struggling in Minnesota, Julius Randle has blossomed into one of the stars of the surprising New York Knicks. Jordan Clarkson has found his place in the world in Utah and he’s not leaving that while Brandon Ingram has demonstrated that he can play great basketball and become a superstar in the future.
