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I'm a die hard Laker fan and am curious to know:

The Lakers keep their 1st Rnd draft pick this summer if their pick is 1-5; meaning the more they lose, the higher the chances they keep that pick, and if they are a bottom 5 team the chances are great.

So do you root for them to loose in order to get a great pick and help the rebuild process?

Or, are you rooting for wins and no shot at keeping their 1st Rnd selection?

Unless Kobe goes down we won't finish with the 2nd worst record, even if he does we still have enough to not be bad enough. Hard to project or take a chance.

Lakers don't have to finish with the 2nd worst record - we need to finish bottom 5.

LAKERLAW wrote:Lakers don't have to finish with the 2nd worst record - we need to finish bottom 5.

You need to finish bottom 2 to be sure. You could always have teams 3 teams jump the order (low probability but still can happen).

I'm torn.

Spurs
Clippers
Golden State
Dallas
Portland
Grizzlys
Rockets

Plus the bubble teams
Phoenix
New Orleans
Denver
Sacramento

Now I can go and nitpick each and every roster:

Dallas's PG play (though Barea is supposedly heading back), Tyson Chandler's washed up, Dirk's due to take a step back.
Portland's depth (although I like Blake and Kaman for them).
Phoenix won't be surprising anyone.
New Orleans: totally unproven.
Rockets losing Parsons, taking a step back....

BUT things would really have to break our way to sneak in there into 7/8th seed, and have to break against so many other teams. Really the odds don't look great at this vantage point, especially starting the season off without Nick Young's scoring off the bench--really can't understate how much this could potentially hurt us. It's why Scott was still preferring to bring Lin off the bench until absolutely all the other PGs went out. We need some consistency off the bench. Can't rely on rookies to bring it every night.

Now? We're all-in on Randle and Clarkson to start out the season, and it could get ugly. But that's fine. They'll learn. I'll tell you though, if this team finds a way to win, and we do get into the dance, that means we're gritty as ****, a Memphis type team, and I like our chances with a healthy Kobe and a team full of scrappy dogs.

My real question is: what kind of draft are we looking at? While I don't want us to tank, we might have no choice due to another plague of injuries. I want to know what we might have to look forward to. Is it deep? Is there a transformational talent? Is this a strong bigs draft? A strong PG draft? What about that Houston pick?

My best-case worst-case scenario? Compete all season. Get those TWC ratings. Franchise keeps its head up, creates an identity and a roadmap to go forward, narrowly miss the POs and then pull a Cleveland hit the lottery.

**** man, I can dream.

Nah. Last year was our tanking year. I will root for the 8th seed. You never know, right?

Slava wrote:

LAKERLAW wrote:Lakers don't have to finish with the 2nd worst record - we need to finish bottom 5.

You need to finish bottom 2 to be sure. You could always have teams 3 teams jump the order (low probability but still can happen).

Sure, but the chances of 3 teams jumping is ridiculously rare, in fact, I can confidently say it has never happened. A bottom 4 finish should be more sufficient.

MUDIAY!

this shouldnt even be asked. at all. no tanking period.

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Definitely win, unless injuries.

both.

occupy 8th seed, but get screwed by other teams' purposeful "tanking" to allow another team that controls tiebreaker to drift into 8th seed and knock lakers out of POs. disgust all round at the gamesmanship

lakers get comp'ed #1 pick

laff

I don't give a damn about a draft pick, for one we won't finish no where near the bottom 5 so there that plan and pipe dream is out the window. Secondly the draft won't be deep, after about the first 6 picks there will be no franchise changing players in this draft.

Hell it's not the Suns did anything with the first rounder we surrendered in 2013....quickly tell me who was so special with that pick we gave them ? Did it turn them into a winner ? Is that pick tearing the league up ?


Answers.... DON'T KNOW....NO....and NO.

People you can't build a team solely through the draft and expect every player drafted will just be solid gold. Philly is trying this and failing badly.

GO FOR THE WIN

Why bother about the draft pick ??? Why waste 82 days of regular season games for just 1 draft day ??? It's not worth it ...

We go for the win every game. We won't go down without a fight. One game at a time.

Lakers never tank.

win

If we have no Injuries or only limit to 1-2 injuries ... We will be a .500 team by X-mas the real question is can we keep that or get better - or are we going to hit rock bottom < last year should of been the year to tank/play bad, but we never did and as long as Kobe is playing tanking ain't and shouldn't be an options.

Win, win, win.

Lin's on the team, and all he does is Lin, Lin, Lin. He has made the playoffs every year, this year should be no exception. It is a little tougher but if Kobe is healthy it could certainly happen again. This team is pretty well rounded actually, just need to fully utilize Lin to get everyone involved, fastbreak, play D, Kobe shoots at the end, not bad.

We'd have to be even worse than last year to get a Top 5 pick and I don't think we're anything close to that bad. Our range is more 9-12 range at worst. Not worth it for that especially when we have the Rockets pick.

crazyeights wrote:BUT things would really have to break our way to sneak in there into 7/8th seed, and have to break against so many other teams.

That pretty much falls in line with my thinking. At this point, it's going to take nothing short of a miracle for the Lakers to make the playoffs this year, let alone do any damage in them. At this point, I'm more worried that we're good enough to avoid top 5 pick status, but not good enough to where we're handing out a late lottery pick to the Suns. If things don't go very well, I hope the Lakers start moving out expiring contracts for longer contracts and more assets because everyone know the Lakers are void of assets.

if you don't go out and create a winning culture, no one will want to sign with a lottery team. Expecting to improve through drafting low is fools gold, it's a narrative pushed by sports media and parroted by internet sports fans.

Think about the teams that won a title in the last twenty years. How many did so because they drafted number 1?