Lakers rumors: How do they build trust?

 The latest Lakers rumors have everything to do with trust within the team.

How Los Angeles handles the latest Lakers rumors will determine their success moving forward.

When asked if the Lakers trusted each other as a team, Lakers forward Larry Nancy Jr. didn’t hesitate with his response, as reported by LA Times writer Tania Ganguli on Friday.

“I don’t,” Nance said. “I don’t think we do.”

Trust is an essential element in building a successful team. Trust requires commitment; commitment promotes teamwork, and teamwork produces results. Seems simple, right?

It’s not.

Like in any healthy and productive relationship, building trust takes time. Unfortunately, this young group is still in the building stage. It’s probably unrealistic at this point to expect them to fully trust one another.

Maybe it’s best to start with making sure these youngsters understand why it’s so important to gain each other’s trust, and how they might accomplish it.

First, there needs to be strong leadership – starting with the front office and going all the way down to the players. I think the turmoil surrounding the Jim and Jeannie Buss/Magic Johnson situation does not provide a steady groundwork for successful team building.

Thankfully, they have Luke Walton who has consistently supported his team and provided an energy the Lakers have been missing the last few years.

Lastly, there needs to be strong leadership within the team. Personally, I’d like to see the team leader role fall upon Nick Young. Many thought Young would be traded after a dismal 2015-16 season that was full of inconsistent play and off court drama. But his commitment during the off-season, combined with his veteran status and reliable play, should afford him a leadership role.

The second most important component to building trust is communication. Honest and frequent communication builds trust!

As we are seeing in New York with the Carmelo Anthony / Phil Jackson situation, shaming players in the media and via tweets are not effective ways to build trust or provide motivation.

Tweets can start a conversation, but there needs to be constructive and honest follow through if there’s any hope for productive problem solving and trust building.

All of this is a lot to ask from such a young Lakers team.

As reported by Lakers Nation writer Corey Hansford, none of these players had played with each other for more than a year coming into this season. So there will naturally be some growing pains as we’ve seen by some of their poor performances this year. But strong leadership and consistent communication will come the more they work together.

And trust will follow.

Next: Chase Utley re-signs with the Dodgers

Next up for the Lakers is a Valentine’s Day match up at Staples against the Sacramento Kings.