T-7: Will the Lakers keep their top-3 protected pick in 2017 draft?

[Slava]

T-8: Which of the latest signings would you like to see on the final roster? | Metta World Peace (58%)
T-9: LA Lakers vs LA Rams who will make the playoffs sooner? | LA Lakers (67%)
T-10: Which position will be the most productive for the Lakers this season? | PG/PF 38% each
T-11: How long will Yi Jianlian last with the Lakers? | 60-82 games (76%)
T-12: Which Laker do you see winning an individual NBA award next season? | Brandon Ingram (Rookie of The Year) (36%)
T-13: How many Lakers do you see participating at all star weekend? (All Events) | 2 (38%)
T-14: If the Lakers end up trading for a star/future star-ish player who will it be? | DeMarcus Cousins (52%)
T-15: Where will the Lakers finish in the Pacific Division in wins? ? 3rd/4th tied (36% each)
T-16: How many trades will the Lakers complete by end of season? | 1 (58%)
T-17: Which Laker will hold the season high for points in a game next season? | D'Angelo Russell (61%)
T-18: What do you expect to be the outcome of Jim Buss' timeline at end of this season? | Jim Buss retracts his promised timeline and stays to continue rebuilding beyond 2016-17 season (65%)
T-19: How many seasons will Luke Walton serve as headcoach of the Lakers? | > 6 seasons (56%)
T-20: Who will get majority of the back up PG minutes? | Marcelo Huertas (33%)/Jose Calderon(33%)
T-21: Who will get majority of the back up center minutes? | Tarik Black (35%)
T-22:Who will lead the Lakers in turnovers? | D'Angelo Russell (71%)
T-23: Which Laker is most likely to be top 10 in the NBA in a statistical category? | Julius Randle - Rebounds/Game (67%)
T-24: Which Lakers will be chosen as the new team captains | Luol Deng(33%), D'Angelo Russell (27%)
T-25: Which Lakers veteran will be traded first? | Lou Williams (43%)
T-26: Which member of the young core will get traded first? | Julius Randle (36%)
T-27: Who will begin the season as a starter and get demoted to the bench later? | Luol Deng/Julius Randle (38%)
T-28: Who will lead the Lakers in assists per game? | D'Angelo Russell (80%)
T-29: Which player will be the first to get cut from the roster? | Nick Young/Travis Wear tied at 44%
T-30: Which player will lead the Lakers in scoring? | D'Angelo Russell (56%)

[ROballer]

I see us around 5th-6th worst record, so the odds are against us on this matter....I don't bank on luck on the ping pong balls usually, hence why I voted "No" on this topic.

[Michael Lucky]

Probably not. Can't get lucky every single year.

[cambomvmt]

Anything outside of top 10 is fine by me, we improve enough to get to that pt

[dAdo dA dEvil]

No. We'll have to be super lucky. The odds of keeping the top 3 protected pick is the same as making it 8th seeded on the playoffs.

[Kilroy]

I would say keeping the pick would be about the polar opposite of 'lucky'.
By all accounts, we're past the 'acquire talent via draft' phase of a rebuild and have moved into the win and trade phase...
If we lose enough to keep the pick, it means everyone on the team is basically a bust, including Walton... So you better REALLY like that 2017 draft pick because everyone else is probably gone.

[TKainZero]

Last year of the tank

We are getting that too 3 pick

Who is worse. Brooklyn ?
They have reason to tank

Lakers will be terrible

[bondom34]

OT, but someone tell Clarkson to change his twitter password, dude got hacked and some of it's really funny. Some just weird/vulgar.

[ak7]

I got put on read-only access on the GB for thread derailing.. do people get free passes if they are mods?

We better not keep our pick this year. I'd like to see major steps forward from our core.

[tugs]

We're making the playoffs no way we're keeping the pick.

[stan francisco]

No. We'll have to be super lucky. The odds of keeping the top 3 protected pick is the same as making it 8th seeded on the playoffs.

Playing well might work better than being lucky.

[SlimShady83]

If we aren't a .500 by allstar game I think we'll Tank the rest of way??. But I still strongly believe this team will either just Hit or miss the playoffs. So No I don't believe we'll keep the pick

[MrWaffles]

Last year of the tank

We are getting that too 3 pick

Who is worse. Brooklyn ?
They have reason to tank

Lakers will be terrible

Brookyln has no business tanking as their pick will go to the Celtics no matter what ( Swap Rights)

However, i do agree with you that we keep the pick. We have very limited talent. We play in the hardest conference with the hardest schedule in the league. Unless the kids improve dramatically, we're last in the West again, which is probably a good thing.

[SashaTheMachine]

We've been way fortunate the past few years. I mean, we jumped two spots two years ago.

This past draft, if I recall correctly, when they were doing the lottery privately back stage with the representatives from each team, the lakers "theoretically" got the third pick, after Philly had the winning combination for the first pick and the second pick as well.

It won't be as painful if we don't keep our pick this year, since we were able to grab D'lo and Ingram the last two drafts.

*Edit: I think we will lose it and it will be around the 8-10 range.

[Landsberger]

It's hard to say. Are we really better than last year? On paper, with progress, yes. Will it materialize on the floor? Who knows?

We're created a roster of older stable vets who are on the decline, a couple of rehab opportunities and a bunch of young guys. Not unlike the Philly teams of the last few years truth be told. They seemed to keep sucking no matter how many top3 picks they got. It's possible we follow them and suck until we again get a true leader.... it's possible that one of the guys we have is that guy but improbably that it's this year he steps forward.

Final piece will be injuries. If we have any to our core group it could be devastating as we are not deep with experience at any position.

Should be fun to watch the guys grow regardless of what happens on the win/loss front.

[TylersLakers]

Tough question. I think we'll be a lot better but a lot of teams have improved as well.

I'll say no because I have us finishing 10th-12th in the West.

[TKainZero]

Last year of the tank

We are getting that too 3 pick

Who is worse. Brooklyn ?
They have reason to tank

Lakers will be terrible

Brookyln has no business tanking as their pick will go to the Celtics no matter what ( Swap Rights)

However, i do agree with you that we keep the pick. We have very limited talent. We play in the hardest conference with the hardest schedule in the league. Unless the kids improve dramatically, we're last in the West again, which is probably a good thing.

Yea
Totally forgot to put "no" in there for Brooklyn.

Lakers just don't have enough versatile athletic wings.
Unless Anthony brown turns into prime tony Allen we have 18 year old Ingram as the best wing option.

Lots of players to play pf and center

No one at SG or SF

[dockingsched]

I would say keeping the pick would be about the polar opposite of 'lucky'.
By all accounts, we're past the 'acquire talent via draft' phase of a rebuild and have moved into the win and trade phase...
If we lose enough to keep the pick, it means everyone on the team is basically a bust, including Walton... So you better REALLY like that 2017 draft pick because everyone else is probably gone.

Don't forget that it's still a lottery with even a team barely missing the playoffs having a shot at a top 3 pick as long as they get lucky.

[Kilroy]

Sure, but are the odds of that even worth discussing?

And to be clear... I don't think that's what most posters are talking about when they talk about 'keeping the pick'... It seems that most, if not all of them assume we will be in the running for 3rd worst record next season, either by purely being terrible, or by tanking...
My point is calling for that at this point is disturbingly short sighted, and represents perhaps a pathological 'grass is always greener' mentality about draft picks...

[slifersd]

I guess the ultimate answer to this comes down to whether we are willing to tank or not for another year. From my perspective, without tanking, it might be hard for us to keep the pick, not because we are too good (we will be better than last year but not good enough to get out of the lottery), but because there are some teams who really suck that hard.

As much as it would be horrible to watch this team go through another tank year, I don't think we can rule out the possibility. This management is on incredibly thin ice with the fan base as we speak. The only beacon of light that they have been able to produce these last few years have been the draft picks. If we are not going to be competitive next year and get somewhere even close to the playoffs (distinct possibility), the fan base will be upset, and the management will have no way of easing the anger other than another high draft pick. And therein lies the dilemma, if we have, for example, the fifth worst record in the league around trade deadline time, does the management make the call to say "screw it, tank to keep the pick"? I would think Jimmy will probably be a big time proponent of that because it is really his only way of preventing the fan base from torching his house.