After a second straight losing season, setting franchise-worst records for losses in both years, the Los Angeles Lakers are entering an extremely important summer. The team will have the tools for a major overhaul of the roster and will be looking to get right back into championship contention as it normally was under the control of the late Dr. Jerry Buss.
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Jeanie Buss is now Lakers President and according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, feels that her father would feel down about the state of the Lakers and would be ready to make some moves to change the fortunes of the team:
She has sensed her father, the late Lakers owner Jerry Buss, would “feel really down ” over the team’s 21-61 mark in the 2014-15 season, its worst record in the franchise’s 67-year-old history […] “My dad did not tolerate losing very well,” Jeanie Buss recalled in an interview with Los Angeles News Group. “He would be anxious to make moves to get us back into contention.”
Despite the ongoing struggles, Buss re-iterated that her family has no intentions on selling the team via Medina:
He worked very hard in a position so that our family could keep this team forever,” Jeanie Buss said of her father. “We’re committed to doing that.”
After two consecutive losing seasons, patience in the organization as well as the fanbase is beginning to wear thin. The Lakers are hoping to get the team turned around next season in what will likely be the final one for Kobe Bryant.
With a possible top-five draft pick as well as enough salary cap space to offer a maximum contract, the tools for a turnaround are there. The pressure will be on the Lakers to make something happen this off-season or this period of struggle could continue for a very long time.
[divide]Lakers 2015 Exit Interviews: Mitch Kupchak
