I don't believe the Lakers are gonna be a bottom 5 team, but they aren't gonna be a playoff team either.
1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. Houston (CP3 + Harden)
4. Minny (KAT + Butler + Wiggins + Teague)
5. OKC (Westbrook + George + Adams)
6. Portland (Lillard + McCollum + the Nurkic effect)
7. LA Clips (Griffin + Jordan + Gallo)
8. New Orleans (Davis + Boogie + Holiday)
9. Denver (Jokic + Millsap)
10. Memphis (Conley + Marc Gasol)
11. Utah (Gobert + Favors + Hood + Rubio + good coach in Snyder)
(not necessarily in that order)
I cannot see the Lakers being better than any of those teams. Worst case scenario (for the C's) they 'll be the 12th best team in the West.
Hopefully, they are gonna be worse than some Eastern Conference teams as well. Problem is, there are far too many tankers/bad teams in the East.
If I had to guess, I 'd say the following teams are gonna be worse than the Lakers next season.
Phoenix
Dallas
Brooklyn
Atlanta
Chicago
NY
Orlando
In this scenario, only way for us to get the pick is 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 the pick.
I agree on all of the teams you predict to finish better than the Lakers.
I would go further and suggest Phx has a legit shot of being better than LA. Bledsoe, Chriss, Booker, Chandler, Dudley, Warren, Knight and Josh Jackson make for a better core of players than what LA has. That's not even depending on Bender or Len to provide much this year.
Dallas has Dirk, Noel, McRoberts, Wes Mathews, Harrison Barnes, Devin Harris, Dwight Powell and bright shiny new rookie in Dennis Smith. I like that core better than LA's too and we know Cuban doesn't want to tank while Dirk is still playing.
You omitted Sac who I also think has a better overall roster: Vince, Zach, George Hill, Kouros, Ty Lawson and some good looking youth Skal, WCS, Giles, Justin Jackson, Hield and Fox looks like a prize rookie. Borden Bogdanovic could work out well for them.
Lakers are very much contenders for the bottom of the West. Their D should continue to be horrid. KCP really needs to make a leap to move the needle for this team. still relying on Lopez to stay healthy. Deng is a shadow of his old self. Randle is empty stats. some youth that may turn into some decent players but they seem to just focus on scoring and not much else.
in the East, I think it's the Nets and Orlando competing with them for the worst record in the league with possibly Atlanta nosing their way in. I think there's a higher level of talent left in Indy, NY and Chicago for them to drop that low in the overall standing. The other aspect is the teams in the East will pick up wins against each other whereas LA will be the West's whipping boy this season further piling on the losses.