Don't care what ESPN says no way Lakers are worse than Philly.

[RingsDontLie]

Come on now, I thought now that Kobe is gone, the media would cut us a little slack, but this is insane. Even with my James Worthy goggles on, thinking that the Lakers have improved mightily and that our young core are making great strides, I refuse to believe that I am mistaken by believing the lakers are better than the 76ers.

Sure I expect the Lakers to be fighting for the 8th spot this season, and that might seem like a stretch to some people, but as fans I think we all root for our team to make the playoffs.

But the 76ers? How are the 76ers better than the Lakers? Simmons didn't have a great summer league. He's not going to make Okafor a better defender, and he's not going to fix Embiid's injury prone body. And who is to believe the 76ers will gel even if they remain healthy. Russell, Clarkson, and Randle have played together for a couple of seasons. Lakers have added proven productive vets like Deng and Mozgov.

Can anyone explain how Espn believes the 76ers are better than the Lakers?

[Kswiss]

76ers have more talent, but I think Walton may actually turn the Lakers into a semi-decent team even without any average NBA starters. Gonna say Lakers wins few more games, probably 25ish to 76ers 20

[Slava]

Lakers being worse than Philly would be a nice favor, provided Brooklyn aren't a complete dumpster fire. It increases the odds of them keeping their own pick and avoids the obligation of sending a 2019 first to Orlando.

[Tukkerwolf]

The thing is: almost every fan thinks their team improved over the offseason which obviously isnt possible. The 76ers fans think they improved tremendously by adding Saric, Simmons, Embiid, Rodriguez and improvement from Okafor, Noel, etc..

[bondom34]

They have Philly at 24.5 wins and LA at 24.3, its not some huge gap. I think Philly beats the Nets honestly, and it wouldn't surprise me either way with LA.

[Dr Aki]

espn have actually overestimated the number of lakers wins these last couple of years (that's right, they've afforded the lakers more respect than they deserved)

lakers fans shouldn't get so up in arms, when seriously, the lakers are probably going to be competing for worst record in the league again, which, if they retain that 2017 1st, would be absolutely fantastic

Watch on YouTube

[mtron929]

The Lakers also have a heavy heavy incentive to tank late in the season. If they are 18-42 with 22 games left, they will be stupid to try to win as many games as possible. For the Sixers, the incentive to tank isn't as strong as they will be getting a high pick regardless. Thus, it makes sense that you might see the Lakers completely bottom out at the end of the season.

[bleu]

Oh boy. A team who has averaged 21.6 wins over the past 3 seasons, and is coming fresh off a whopping 17 win season, feels disrespected by a national media outlet? If a team like the Bucks or the Jazz did that, ESPN wouldn't even know that they exist.

[jptremblay]

They may are probably tied...but if Sixers trade okafor for a decent starting small forward with future...they will be clearly superior and Playoff contenders...

Sergio Rodriguez
Gerald Henderson
??
Simmons/Saric
Embiid/Noel

That's really nice for their future.

[QRich3]

lakers fans shouldn't get so up in arms, when seriously, the lakers are probably going to be competing for worst record in the league again, which, if they retain that 2017 1st, would be absolutely fantastic

Yeah if there was one year to tank for the Lakers it should be this one. If they keep this year's pick in the top 3, not only would they devalue the pick they'll end up sending to Philadelphia, they'll also be extinguishing the unprotected 2019 pick they owe to the Magic and turning it into 2 2nds. Not to mention they'd strengthen their core with yet another great young player that'd be otherwise very difficult to add down the road.

OP should be ecstatic if the 6ers finish with a better record than the Lakers.

[CoreyGallagher]

This is sort of a funny thread, I'll just comment on a few things.

Simmons didn't have a great summer league.

It's Summer League, who cares? Last 3 top prospects - Towns shot 39.6%, Wiggins 40.5%, Oladipo 37.5% (ignoring Bennett)... I don't recall it mattering much then. Simmons was also the only among them to have played in two separate Summer Leagues his rookie season. He shot 41% in the 4 games he played in Utah (usually that's all a rookie would have played), then he went on to Las Vegas SL played in his first game and then didn't play again until his final game there, only shot 23.5% in those 2 games.

Russell, Clarkson, and Randle have played together for a couple of seasons.

They've played one season together...

Lakers have added proven productive vets like Deng and Mozgov.

Why isn't losing Brandon Bass more of an issue for Lakers' fans hoping for wins? I didn't watch many of their games, but looking at the numbers, he seemed to play the most above his role of any player on the Lakers last season. He had the best metrics and in the 66 games / 20 minutes per game that he played in they were only outscored by a single point per 100 possessions, without him they were outscored by 14.4 points... That's a huge loss that is never brought up and I think they'd be lucky to get it from Mozgov.

[justicewinslow]

I stopped reading OP after "Lakers have improved mightily"

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[JDR720]

I stopped reading OP after "Lakers have improved mightily"

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Kobe leaving is a big improvement

no more Scott too.

[Mich3006]

They may are probably tied...but if Sixers trade okafor for a decent starting small forward with future...they will be clearly superior and Playoff contenders...

Sergio Rodriguez
Gerald Henderson
??
Simmons/Saric
Embiid/Noel

That's really nice for their future.

Still don´t understand why the Sixers didn´t trade Noel for Jeff Teague and some other stuff...

[hookshot199]

They may are probably tied...but if Sixers trade okafor for a decent starting small forward with future...they will be clearly superior and Playoff contenders...

Sergio Rodriguez
Gerald Henderson
??
Simmons/Saric
Embiid/Noel

That's really nice for their future.

Still don´t understand why the Sixers didn´t trade Noel for Jeff Teague and some other stuff...

Very simple. Teague becomes an unrestricted free agent in June. We lose him. Noel becomes a restricted free agent in June. We keep him if we wish to keep him - i.e., match whatever offer is made = potentially four more years under contract.

[HartfordWhalers]

I hope so.

[LloydFree]

Talent wise the 76ers and Lakers are about equal, top to bottom. The Lakers have a better starting lineup and are more balanced, which you would think would lead to more wins. But the Lakers have waaayyy more incentive to tank this year. The Lakers are a bottom 3 team on merit this year. When they see that they only have 15 wins in March, they are definitely going to make sure they are the worst team, in order to keep their '17 and '19, 1st round picks.

*** For the same reasons, I think the Miami Heat will finish with a lot worse record than anticipated. This is one of the few years they own their own pick, and they are going to try to maximize it.

[slothrop8]

I stopped reading OP after "Lakers have improved mightily"

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Kobe leaving is a big improvement

no more Scott too.

Absolutely, these two things alone make a huge difference. I was a fan of Kobe Bryant's game for a lot of his career - but subtracting someone with 32.2% usage and 46.9% TS is an enormous gain. Not having Byron Scott around is another huge positive. However, the Lakers best players are all very young, and there is significant incentive to tank - a bottom 3 finish would be huge for them. If they struggle early - and it's hard to imagine they won't - they have every reason to set the auto-pilot for a bottom 3 result. The Lakers have some key components to a stealth tank if they need to use them - combo guards they can plausibly "experiment" with at length playing PG, guys who will likely be low efficiency who they could "encourage" to take lots of shots by "experimenting" with them in roles they aren't ready for yet, guard combinations you could play together who can't guard anyone at all - these are all some of the pillars of ensuring tanking while pretending to try and the Lakers have them in spades if they need to unleash them.

Philadelphia are going to try to win games. Their roster is not necessarily further along than the Lakers - but never discount the impact that "incentive to lose" vs "actually trying a little" can have on final standings.

[Sofia]

So you're saying we will get less wins compared to last year when everyone on the team was riddled with injury. I don't buy it. At worst this lakers team gets 30-35 win.

[MotownMadness]

Lakers need one more top pick. If they can land another top 3 pick this year in a loaded draft the future will be real bright. They already have some nice young pieces like DLO, Zubac, Clarkston and Ingram.