I think we can safely say we won't get the Laker pick

[Tr1boy]

Worst case a late lotto pick for 2019 draft

Danny has a good track record around this range

[RIPRED]

The only thing we can safely say is that some folks are grossly overreacting to Summer League. Everything else is a complete unknown. It will be fun to watch the season unfold.

[CelticsElite]

I just don't understand how people can think the Lakers will make noise. Even the worst west teams have a bunch of stars. The clippers for example look to be a 8th seed and they are loaded.

[Geo123]

The only thing we can safely say is that some folks are grossly overreacting to Summer League. Everything else is a complete unknown. It will be fun to watch the season unfold.

Exactly....

[Big333223]

I just don't understand how people can think the Lakers will make noise. Even the worst west teams have a bunch of stars. The clippers for example look to be a 8th seed and they are loaded.

Yeah. I've got Golden State, San Antonion, Houston, OKC, the Clippers, Denver, Portland, Memphis, New Orleans, and Minnesota comfortably ahead of the Lakers and Utah and Dallas ahead of them as well. At best, the Lakers might be 13th worst team in the West. If the stars aligned and everything possible broke the Lakers' way, maybe they could be the 11th worst.

But there is no danger of them making the playoffs. They will have a good-to-decent chance at getting a top 3 pick no matter what. How good that chance is will likely be determined by just how bad the bottom teams in the East are.

[mctyson]

The only thing we can safely say is that some folks are grossly overreacting to Summer League. Everything else is a complete unknown. It will be fun to watch the season unfold.

Disagree.  I need to see a real argument that somehow places LAL outside of the bottom 5 in the Western Conference, which means they will easily be a bottom 10 team overall.  My guess is they are bottom 8, which gives the Cs a good shot at getting #5.

[GreenEnvy]

Yeah I don't see it. The West has some brutal teams, but those brutal teams get to play each other a lot more often.

The Lakers play the West 52 times. Of those 52, how many of the 14 teams do you feel comfortable about them consistently beating? I think the Kings and Suns are probably at their level. The rest of the West is tough.

I can see them being a bottom-5 team, for sure. Is Ball + Lopez - Russell thatttt big of an improvement?

As long as the Nets are the worst team, I'm not too concerned with LA. Would be nice, but if not, that Kings pick should be good.

[Beat LA]

Brook Lopez is the best player on that team right now and if he goes down or only plays for half the season (or less) then the LAL are so screwed.

Honestly, losing Lopez would tremendously improve their defense, most likely, lol.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Brook Lopez is the best player on that team right now and if he goes down or only plays for half the season (or less) then the LAL are so screwed.

Honestly, losing Lopez would tremendously improve their defense, most likely, lol.

They  seem to be trying to create a potent offense to offset their horrid defense. 

[RockinRyA]

As an aside, #1 overall is expensive. About $7M this year--which is one reason why Ainge traded it. More $ next year. That's a lot for a 19yo gamble.

Ball would've looked good as a Celtic - could've put IT at the 2 like the Rockets did with Calvin Murphy back in the day, had him guard quick PGs and score at will from Ball's passes.

In any event, Celtics fortunes continue to rise - good picks in the bank even without the Lakers' pick.

Can you imagine Ball guarding someone like Beal or DeRozan?!

[TheSundanceKid]

The Lakers play 30 of their 82 games against the East. Let's say they are better than Brooklyn. Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Indiana and win them all, that's 10 wins. Add in 2 surprise wins against the rest for 12 total.

Of the 52 against the West they are possibly better than Phoenix and Sacramento. Let's also add in New Orleans exploding mid season and the Lakers sweep them. That's another 11 wins. Add in a couple of wins against the Denvers and Grizzlies of the worlds for 18 wins in the West.

That's 30 total, I've had them sweep every team below them which will never happen but that should offset them being swept by others... That's good for 6th worst record last year.

Does anyone think they are doing better than that? Who else are they taking wins off?

In reality they are probably going to lose road games to the bad East teams, particularly a team like Brooklyn who play hard. Ball, who won't be producing at summer league levels in the NBA, will hit the rookie wall just like every other rookie in history. They are likely to try and ship off some of their longer term contracts like Deng and Clarkson to max cap space this summer which will inevitably cause some instability on the roster.

There may even come a point where it benefits them to lose the pick this year because of cap space. I haven't looked at this but if the lack of a pick gives them the space to bring in James and George then it's a no brainer.

[GreenShooter]

The Lakers play 30 of their 82 games against the East. Let's say they are better than Brooklyn. Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Indiana and win them all, that's 10 wins. Add in 2 surprise wins against the rest for 12 total.

Of the 52 against the West they are possibly better than Phoenix and Sacramento. Let's also add in New Orleans exploding mid season and the Lakers sweep them. That's another 11 wins. Add in a couple of wins against the Denvers and Grizzlies of the worlds for 18 wins in the West.

That's 30 total, I've had them sweep every team below them which will never happen but that should offset them being swept by others... That's good for 6th worst record last year.

Does anyone think they are doing better than that? Who else are they taking wins off?

In reality they are probably going to lose road games to the bad East teams, particularly a team like Brooklyn who play hard. Ball, who won't be producing at summer league levels in the NBA, will hit the rookie wall just like every other rookie in history. They are likely to try and ship off some of their longer term contracts like Deng and Clarkson to max cap space this summer which will inevitably cause some instability on the roster.

There may even come a point where it benefits them to lose the pick this year because of cap space. I haven't looked at this but if the lack of a pick gives them the space to bring in James and George then it's a no brainer.

They lose the pick regardless. It is unprotected this year and goes to Philly unless it's 2-5.

[Jvalin]

The only thing we can safely say is that some folks are grossly overreacting to Summer League. Everything else is a complete unknown. It will be fun to watch the season unfold.

Disagree.  I need to see a real argument that somehow places LAL outside of the bottom 5 in the Western Conference, which means they will easily be a bottom 10 team overall.  My guess is they are bottom 8, which gives the Cs a good shot at getting #5.

Assuming the Lakers are a bottom 8 team, how would we have a good shot at getting #5? In this scenario, only way for us to get the pick would be if the Lakers move up to #2 (3.3%) or #3 (3.9%) in the lottery. To put it another way, we would have a 7.2% chance to get either the 2nd or the 3rd pick.

[Irish Stew]

https://www.sportsinsights.com/blog/2017-18-nba-win-totals/

For what it's worth, here are some over/under win totals. The Lakers are tied for sixth with the Knicks at 32.5

[liam]

I thought it was some kind of NBA rule that The Lakers always get the number two pick...