Whether due to trade or release, these three Los Angeles Lakers players will no longer be on the roster by this time next year.
With the Los Angeles Lakers unlikely to contend this season, speculation and theories about the franchise’s short-term fortunes are running rampant. The practice of predicting the future for the purple and gold has become all too common this offseason.
It only seems right to continue feeding into that. It’s become a specialty of mine in the last few months, so why not keep the train chugging along? That’s why, today, I’m taking a swing at predicting which prominent Lakers players will not be on the roster come 2018.
For the purposes of this exercise, I left out any players scheduled to be unrestricted free agents in 2018. That means there will be no Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brook Lopez or Corey Brewer on this list. It’s almost too easy to “predict” someone not being around if their contract is expiring, right? The rest of the Lakers’ current roster is fair game, though.
There were a number of factors I considered when making my selections. However, when it all came down to it, these three seemed like the most likely to be wearing different jerseys at some point next year.
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With that in mind, let’s take a look at the three prominent Lakers players who won’t be around in 2018. These predictions may not please everyone, but I can assure you that wasn’t one of my concerns when compiling this list.