It's Lakers vs. Celtics Again; This Time in Rebuilding

Draft Success Excites Lakers But Celtics Are Way Ahead Of Them By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Several years ago the Lakers and Celtics were terrible. Those championship battles in their history were only memories. But Boston. driven by Danny Ainge, started doing things right. They selected well and piled up top level draft choices in trades. By contrast, the Lakers floundered with Jim Buss as the top basketball executive and Mitch Kupchak as general manager. The club stood

still, changing one sub par roster for another. The records were the worst in franchise history. Fast forward to Tuesday night, May 15, 2017. The Lakers, now the responsibility of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, were overjoyed by getting the No 2 pick in the upcoming draft. All over Southern California there is joy. The Lakers will have he opportunity to select guard Lonzo Ball, a local hero from UCLA. With Pelinka likely to make a trade or two the Lakers won’t be terrible next season. But hold back some of your high hopes Laker fans because the longtime rival Celtics are in a far better position. It’s almost unbelievable what they’ve done. The Lakers hope to get back into the playoffs one of these years. Not only are the Celtics already there but they’re the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, having just won a seven-game series from Washington.

Although the Celtics are underdogs against Cleveland in the Eastern finals they’re the No. 1 seed based on the season they’ve had and will have the first two games at home. And the Celtics just got the No. 1 pick in the draft. While the Lakers are satisfied with Ball the Celtics can draft point guard Markelle Fulkes of the University of Washington, and almost every team in the first round except the Lakers were going to take Fulkes over Ball. In fact Fulkes is so good the Celtics will take him even though they already have a terrific point guard in Isaiah Thomas, who scored a club record 20 points in 41 straight games this season. There’s also speculation Fulkes will do so well in his first two seasons that the Celtics will consider trading Thomas instead of paying him the $200 million he’d be eligible for.