The Lakers had always had a tradition of poaching other teams' stars.
For example, they got Shaquille O'Neal from the Orlando Magic;
they got Sky Hook Jabbar from the Milwaukee Bucks;
and they got Wilt Chamberlain from the Philadelphia Warriors.
After King Arthur left last year, the team went into a slump.
The team's General Manager had already held talks with other teams, hoping to trade for one or two stars and rebuild.
But this year, no one took the bait.
They also failed to land any big fish in this year's free agency, so they decided to tear things down and rebuild from scratch.
The Lakers' approach to rebuilding this year was pretty unconventional.
After trading King Arthur, they acquired two First Round picks. And since the team had finished seventh from the bottom in the league standings after King Arthur left last year, they effectively had three First Round picks in total.
With the pick that ranked highest, they landed the second overall selection.
That showed just how valuable their picks were.
So what did they do with those three First Round picks?
They drafted three shooters!
Then, most of the players they signed in free agency were shooters, too.
And even more absurdly, they didn't have a single true center. Their tallest player was only 2.08 meters.
So this Los Angeles Lakers team had become a full-fledged jump-shooting squad.
Or, rather, a three-point shooting squad.
The difference between this team and other three-point shooting squads was that they had no towering center to protect the paint and grab rebounds.
But they did have midrange shots, something previous three-point shooting teams had lacked.
This new Lakers team had a clear identity: no inside game, but plenty of long-range and midrange shooting, with a good balance between the