It seems likely the Lakers will either do one of two things if not both, but #1 would be trying to get a max free agent or two like Durant, Horford, Whiteside, or DeRozan although none of those seem realistic at this time. If we strike out there it's not unreasonable to expect us to try and fill out the roster with solid veterans like Deng, Noah, Dudley, maybe re-signing Bass. I would say if we do the latter along with the obvious upgrade going from Byron to Luke along with what should be grown and development I think 34 wins is a reasonable expectation. What do you guys think? If we took Bender I figure it would be around 25 or so because obviously he's the less NBA ready of the three.
It's too early to say but barring LeBron or Durant, this team should expect between 30-40 wins. The number would slide up or down depending on Horford or DeRozan or Biyombo or whomever but I don't expect anything getting us over 40 wins after a 17 win season.
i thought they'd win a lot more than 17 games before last season so i won't even bother speculating for next season
I may be the minority here but I truly believe our team will be dramatically better. I see us making the playoffs 8th seed min, we're going to have more talent and no kobe to dominant the ball (I love kobe btw) I know the youngins are going to be a lot better on both sides, bc they are known to be hard workers. With Luke's system and connection to his players I see us becoming a great shooting team with Ingram in the mix and hopefully some decent free agents. The Lakers will get a good player this year bc mitch and Jim need one for their jobs sake.
A little early I think to say, but I'll answer this question now based on what I think might go down and then maybe another thread will pop up later once our roster is set. 28 wins, but there'll be a ton of enthusiasm and a growing fear around the league that we will be a dominant force for a long time. I think we sort of need to look at this as Ingram and the 32nd pick's rookie year and Randle and Russell's .5 year, if that makes any sense. My point being, we are going to be trotting out a ton of youth. They will play the right way but still lose most their games. Remember, we won 17 games, but we lost sooooo many games by double digits. It's not just about us turning some of those losses into wins. We also will be working on getting some of those losses up to "respectable losses" territory. But this is how things work in the NBA. As Laker fans, we just aren't accustomed to long rebuilds through youth and the draft. Even back in the 90s it was a couple years of picking up good players in the draft (Jones/Van Exel) then boom. We got Ceballos and made the playoffs. Then boom. We got Shaq and Fox. We are building like a small market team, not because we want to, but because Kobe's contract kind of forced us to.
Yes. It was partly that too. This rebuild at this pace is a result of "Basketball Reasons," a new anti-Laker CBA, signing an old, injured star to a giant contract, and even to some extent, Dwight leaving town (Dwight leaving was a blessing).
I have to see what we do with the roster before making any guesses. I picked 32 last year, actually took a little heat for picking so few and then we ended up winning about half that much! Worst Laker coach of all time. Thanks Boron. Well, at least we got the number two pick.
Oh no, I'm not playing this game again. After last season's disappointment...yea. Whatever happens, happens.
I can't give a win total without knowing what half our roster will be. If we do the smart thing and take Ingram or Simmons and don't blow the #2 pick, that will help things right away. If we strike out in free agency completely we probably win 20-some games though, even if in the high 20's. If we land a big signing or two, that could easily send the win total up quite a bit, anywhere from a .500 team, to last playoff spot.
Yeah. I mean, even if you count Ingram as being on the roster and let's say Thon Maker at 32, AND we assume we resign Clarkson AND Black, that's only 10 guys, with two of them being Swaggy and Anthony Brown.
Too early to really guess. If we stand pat with some journeymen FA signings and get Ingram, I'll say 28 - 35. If we get a couple stud FAs and Ingram, I can see us jumping up to 41 - 45 wins.