I still think the Lakers pick will be conveying this year. Granted, there are some other bad teams out there but LA is playing in the West which is loaded with better teams that will beat on them more frequently than the teams in the East.
Thing is, there's a big difference between the talent levels of the West bottom feeders and the other Western teams as opposed to the smaller difference in talent levels of the East bottom feeders and the other Eastern teams. The crappy teams in the West beating the not-crappy teams is more of a stretch than in the East due to that smaller talent gap in the East.
West:
Only other teams that are close to the Lakers in terms of futility are Sacramento, Phoenix and Dallas.
- Lakers. Team is underwhelming in terms of players. Lopez is the big name but not producing near his Nets level. Leading scorer is Clarkson at less than 15 points per game. KCP is a longshot to become more than a defensive player. the rest are young players who haven't proven anything.
- Sacramento has more talent but hasn't figured out how to get them to play together yet as evidenced by their destruction by the C's this week. They should be able to finish with a similar record to the Lakers if not a bit better.
- Dallas has more talent but isn't performing as well as they should. Dirk looks to have really dropped off in talent this season. The way a number of people here were falling over themselves to sign Harrison Barnes to a max deal he should be performing like an all-star instead of the mediocre 3rd banana he is. in the end, this team should have enough pieces to end up better than the Lakers but worst case should be a similar record.
- Phx also has more talent than the Lakers but they're underperforming as well. I'm anticipating them to improve as the season progresses and leave the Lakers comfortably behind them in the standings. they'll still have a crappy record due to being in the West but they're a better team.
East:
We're looking at Brooklyn, Orlando, Atlanta, Indiana, NY and Chicago as the bottom feeders.
- Orlando is off to a great start. Some of their youth seems to finally be making the leap to productive players. We'll see if this continues or if they slide back to the pack. As it is, the early wins will help them (us) in their effort to finish better than the Lakers.
- Indy is off to a good start as well. Roster isn't great but they're winning. Like Orlando, early wins will help in the effort to finish better than the Lakers.
- Chicago has a cruddy roster but they're missing Lavine who's their prize acquisition from Minny. Once he's back that should address some of their scoring issues. They'll be bad but good enough to steal some wins against mediocre Eastern teams.
- NY has a few decent players. KP is looking good (except when playing the C's) but doesn't have enough support to get to be a mediocre team. Off to an ok start and have the talent to pull off some wins in a weak conference.
- Atlanta has a crap roster pure and simple. probably worst in the league. very likely to have the worst record in the league at the end of the season.
- Brooklyn has a crap roster as well but a little better than Atlanta in terms of players that could have a good game once in a while. They're doing better than expected so far which is great in terms of their record but I suspect they'll come back to earth before long and have another lousy year in the end.
Topic: 2017-18 Lakers Season Watch Thread (27-34, 10th Slot on 3/2) (Read 224731 times)