Los Angeles Lakers: A Dark Age When Kobe Bryant Retires?

A potentially dark age awaits the Los Angeles Lakers in 2016, when Kobe Bryant is expected to step down

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The Los Angeles Lakers are on the cusp of a possible dark age when Kobe Bryant retires. Most believe that that day will come when Bryant’s contract ends after the 2016 season, his 20th in the NBA and every indication has been pointing toward that. So what happens to the Los Angeles Lakers when the Black Mamba decides to hang up the fangs?

It can either go really well, or really bad, and this season will be key in determining that.

The Lakers have a good chance of landing the top pick of the draft, but if their pick lands outside the top five, then it’s awarded to Phoenix thanks to the Steve Nash trade. The Lakers must ensure a top-five pick. Tanking sucks, but a bad season or two now can help out to ensure the success of the next 10 years.

Let’s pretend the Lakers land the top pick and draft the consensus No. 1 pick Jahlil Okafor out of Duke. The Lakers then will have a forward tandem of Okafor and Julius Randle to carry the team for years to come, not to mention what the Lakers can do in free agency.

Now going along with this assumption that the Lakers have Randle and Okafor, let’s fast forward to Bryant’s retirement after 2016. What happens then? The Lakers will have a surplus amount of money to spend and nothing but the best talent in the league avaliable to them.

Kevin Durant, Joakim Noah, Kevin Love, Mike Conley, and Lebron James (Although he’ll probably re-sign with Cleveland). If the Lakers can sign Conley and Love at least, they’ll be on their way to success for a long time. Now all that is the best case scenario, now what happens if the Lakers don’t get the No. 1 pick?

Well they might be doomed.

This is the bad scenario where the Lakers don’t land a top pick. In this case, they enter the next season with Julius Randle coming back from injury, maybe an OK free agent signing, and second rate free agents. After Bryant’s retirement, only Nick Young and Julius Randle have contracts beyond 2016. They will either pray they land Kevin Durant and/or Kevin Love, or the Lakers will be entering a very dark period.

Either way, the Lakers are approaching a very huge fork in the road at the end of the 2016 season with the retirement of their legend. And the road to fork begins this season.

Next: Chicago Bulls: It's time for their new stars to hit the limelight

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