Before the 2016 season began, Los Angeles Lakers Executive VP of Basketball Operations Jim Buss spoke about hoping to find a number of core players on the roster. Though the Lakers won only 17 games, there were definitely some players who stood out as significant parts of the future in D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, and Julius Randle.
Those three are widely considered the young core of the Lakers and have a ton of potential to grow over the next couple of years.
In an interview with Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, Buss named those three, as well as a couple of other players, as building blocks for the future:
The Lakers have developing prospects D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson.