The Los Angeles Lakers are horrible. Not only are they 0-3 to start the season which, on its face isn’t a big deal, but they are stuck with a roster top-loaded with Russell Westbrook’s 47-million dollar albatross of a contract. We don’t like beating dead horses, but Westbrook is not so good at basketball these days. And by “these days” we mean all of last season which was the worst of his entire career by some advanced metrics.
Add in LeBron James and Anthony Davis’ massive cap space eating deals along with some questionable front office moves and you have a team headed straight for the top of the NBA lottery odds. In a year where the NBA Draft is loaded, with generational talent Victor Wembanyama at the top of the heap, this wouldn’t necessarily be a horrible thing. Plenty of fan bases would already be looking forward to NBA Draft season with glee. But the Lakers have no such silver lining thanks to trading away their future in a variety of moves.
2023 NBA Draft Pick Situation
In the up-coming 2023 NBA ‘Wembanyama’ Draft, the New Orleans Pelicans hold the right to swap their own first-round pick with the Lakers. So, should things continue on their current path and the Lakers finish with a top pick and the Pelicans, lead in part by former Laker Brandon Ingram, meet expectations and make the playoffs it will be New Orleans slamming that pick swap card on the table and smiling all the way to the draft.
Teams in this situation sometimes decide to pull the plug and start a rebuild but do we really think the Lakers are going to move their most-tradable player, Anthony Davis, and go down this road? Not very likely.
The only hope for Lakers fans is some kind of miraculous turnaround by a team that hasn’t shown much reason to be hopeful. Or maybe they will sucker some other team into taking on Russ’ expiring contract.
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