ESPN projected the Los Angeles Lakers to finish outside of the playoff picture next season, but that’s still hard to see that happening.
ESPN writer Kevin Pelton officially released his projected win totals for all 30 NBA teams, and thus, predicted which teams he believes will make the 2019 NBA playoffs.
To what should be the surprise of many, Pelton does not have the Los Angeles Lakers making the playoffs in the Western Conference next season. This sounds a little bit crazy, because the Lakers just landed the biggest free agent of all time, LeBron James — the greatest basketball player in the world. Pelton has teams such as the Timberwolves and the Nuggets winning more games than LeBron’s Lakers next season.
To be more precise, he has the Lakers projected for 41.2 wins next season – only half of their regular season games – and penciled in for a ninth place finish in the Western Conference standings.
Sorry, but if the Lakers are good enough for ninth, then LeBron is good enough to carry them into the playoffs. Yes, the West is completely stacked with monster teams like the Golden State Warriors (who added DeMarcus Cousins this offseason), the Houston Rockets (who added Carmelo Anthony this offseason), and the Oklahoma City Thunder (who re-signed Paul George this offseason). And then there are the up-and-coming teams like the Utah Jazz and the Portland Trail Blazers.
But the Lakers have LeBron James, who singlehandedly carried a below-average Cleveland Cavaliers team to the NBA Finals last season. He’s also the man who snapped the city of Cleveland’s 50-plus year pro sports title drought when nobody thought it could be done. LeBron also has not missed the Finals since 2010. That’s eight consecutive years of playing deep into June.
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Now, yes, the Western Conference is much more loaded with much deeper teams than the Eastern Conference. But LeBron is still LeBron, and he won’t be completely surrounded with scrubs like he was last year. He’s going to have veteran players like Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, Javale McGee, and Michael Beasley among others on the court with him this year, which in my opinion, is an upgrade over the cast of characters he had with him last year in Cleveland (looking at you, J.R. Smith).
Are the Lakers a good enough team to win the 2019 title? Probably not. But to say that the great LeBron James can’t even bring this team to a top eight finish in the Western Conference standings — when you’re already predicting him as close as No. 9 — seems a little bit disrespectful.