The Los Angeles’ Lakers’ struggles to recruit top free agents over the last several years have been real, if a bit overstated. The team didn’t sign any major names over the past several years prior to the summer of 2016, when they added Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng at near max money.
The prior several summers, Los Angeles had little to sell outside of the city itself. With a maxed-out and declining Kobe Bryant and little else on the roster (as well as an unappealing coaching situation) it would have been more of a surprise if the Lakers had been able to recruit a superstar than them failing to do so.