Last season, the Purple and Gold Legion fell so hard that it didn't even qualify for the playoffs, making it a big joke for the entire league. In order to help the Lakers get back on track in the new season, Pelinka reformed the team at the behest of owner Jenny Bass.
After last season's regular season, they quickly cut Vogel and appointed Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Hamm as the team's new head coach before the draft. Changing the coach is actually only the first step, and it is also the practice of changing the soup without changing the medicine, the key is to introduce some outstanding players.
In summarizing the failure experience of last season, the Lakers management generally believes that in addition to the injury troubles of James and Davis, it is mainly due to the existence of Wei Shao's "killing eight hundred self-inflicted losses of a thousand"; In addition, the players they introduced are older, smaller and weak in attack and defense, which means that the performance of Anthony and Howard is more powerful. To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, the key words they attract are youth, athleticism, defense and projection.
So, after contacting the entire league, the Purple and Gold Army bought a second-round pick in the hands of the "old iron" Orlando Magic, and used it to select the 19-year-old wing forward Christie. At the same time, they dug into the lost draft and signed Pippen Jr., O'Neal Jr. and Sweed in one go.
Judging from the past few summer league games, O'Neill Jr. is deeply limited by his physical condition, and he has the intention to kill the enemy and is powerless to return to the sky; And little Pippen can't mix in the alliance at all, as for the "champion" Christie is a piece of jade, which needs to be further carved; And the only one who can really have combat effectiveness and can help this Lakers seems to be Sweed.
Born in 1999, Sweed is already an older rookie, and because of his age, he was not optimistic about this year's draft, and he was seen as not having high potential, although he performed well at Syracuse University last season. In five summer league games, Sweed averaged 13.2 points per game, shooting 17-of-30 from three-point range and shooting 56.6 percent from three-point range. In addition to his excellent projection, Sweed's basketball IQ is also very high, his ability to run without the ball, and he is an excellent pitcher, like a weakened version of "Klay Thompson".
The Lakers have made a big mistake this season, their three-point shooting rate is huge, their highest three-point shooting rate last season was James, one of the worst three-pointer teams, in today's NBA really has no future. Fortunately, with the rise of Sweed, heroes do not ask about provenance, as long as they behave well, they can win more opportunities. What's more, the Lakers are good at digging up the lost draft, and Caruso and Reeves are all glowing and hot in the Purple and Gold Army. Sweed will continue his performance into the regular season, improve his defensive skills, he will become a member of the Lakers rotation lineup, but also become a good helper around James and Davis.