Time flies in the NBA. Case in point, next month will mark the two-year anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s remarkable last game as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. The fitting conclusion to the Black Mamba’s storied career ended with an image, not of Bryant himself, but of a stirring embrace with what was at the time, the expected future of the Lakers.
After the recent NBA trade deadline, there is currently only one player left on the current roster who was a member of that core, Julius Randle. The fact that Randle, whose name has swirled in and out of trade rumors all season, is now the sole player who has remained on the Lakers since the 2014-15 season, speaks to the amount of roster turnover in the past few years.