Los Angeles Lakers: 3 bold predictions for 2018-19 NBA season

2. The Lakers claim the 3-seed

This prediction reverts back to the intro slide and the variance of where the Los Angeles Lakers will land in the conference standings. Their over/under win total is set around 48.5 wins, good enough for a middle of the pack Western Conference playoff team. I’ve seen them picked as a 3-seed to the 6-seed to missing the playoffs all together, something that I haven’t come across with any other NBA team.

This Los Angeles Lakers team will finish as the 3-seed in a tough Western Conference. They won 35 games a season ago with a young team that didn’t have Lonzo Ball or Brandon Ingram play in over 60 games a piece. They swapped Julius Randle (who is rapidly improving), Brook Lopez, Isaiah Thomas, Tyler Ennis and Channing Frye for LeBron James, Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley.

LeBron alone is worth an extra 10 wins and we saw the impact Rondo had with the New Orleans Pelicans last season. In fact, LeBron’s first season with a new team saw an improved win total, starting with 18 extra wins his rookie year in Cleveland, 11 his first season with the Miami Heat and 20 his second time with the Cavs.

The Lakers young players will improve and the roster’s skill sets mesh so well together that there shouldn’t be too many growing pains. The concerns with the big man position are overblown given their desire to play small and uptempo, and the positionless basketball this team will play is perfect for the modern NBA.

The Western Conference Finals are a real possibility, and this team will be an exciting product that stockpiles wins. This conference is deep, but boasts three top contenders outside of the Lakers with the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz. The latter has players that have struggled to stay healthy for a full season, and the 3-seed last season was the Portland Trail Blazers with 49 wins. This opens the door for the Los Angeles Lakers to claim the 3-seed.