Los Angeles Lakers: 2017-18 NBA season preview
Best-case scenario
If Lonzo Ball never develops the skills necessary to be an All-Star level point guard, he is going to do one thing for the Lakers and any team he is on, as he has done on every level of basketball — he will redefine their culture.
Playing with Ball and his ball-sharing ethos permeates an entire team. Lonzo is not afraid to shoot, like many pass-heavy guards, but rather wants everyone to be involved and the shot to go to the player in the best position to score. UCLA went from dysfunctional to free-flowing immediately upon his arrival.
If Ball comes in and sets that tone, this team has pieces. Larry Nance Jr. and Ivica Zubac are great energy bigs, Brook Lopez was underrated for being an offensive workhorse, and Luol Deng and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope both have two-way track records.
This team is too young to truly compete for the postseason, but in a perfect world those young players all take a step forward and this team at least keeps the conversation open past the midway point of the season. They could reach the high-30s if things fall perfectly into place for them.
Worst-case scenario
The Los Angeles Lakers have not been good recently. Last year a late-season winning streak pulled them up to 26 wins, but they played the season like a 21-win team. That’s the baseline the team is beginning from.
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Discussing the new arrivals is fun, but it ignores the fact that a competent defensive center in Timofey Mozgov and the team’s best guard from last year and former second overall pick D’Angelo Russell are no longer on the team. Lopez and Caldwell-Pope are both upgrades, but they aren’t pure additions.
The team will be relying heavily on rookie-scale players, from Ingram to Randle to Ball. If those players are slow to develop, this team will struggle to win games. Lopez is a solid offensive center, but his track record on the Nets shows he doesn’t save a team’s season alone. Caldwell-Pope was part of the disaster in Detroit last year.
If the team is struggling by midseason, they may elect to offload their expensive contracts to teams that may want the boost for the postseason run. Luol Deng, Jordan Clarkson and even Julius Randle could be shipped out by the trade deadline. The team could seek value from Lopez or Caldwell-Pope if they feel confident about incoming stars. Any of those moves would most likely make this team worse for this season.
Therefore, a win total still in the 20s is very possible, even with the team’s additions. The team could improve on last year’s true talent by eight wins and still not reach the 30-win mark. If things go poorly, this team could tack one more year onto the franchise-record period of malaise the Lakers and their fans have been mired in.