The Los Angeles Lakers of next season will be unlike any Laker team in recent memory: devoid of expectation. This team is seen by most as a filler until the theatrics of next summer. Until then, we’ll have a very weird, hopefully entertaining, and assuredly mediocre Lakers team. While you can’t count out a trio of Steve Nash, Pau Gasol, and Kobe Bryant, that trio has a lot of games and even more minutes on their legs. But that trio will provide LA a brief return to a Showtime-esque offense with the passing of Gasol and Nash, the greatness of Bryant, and the addition of young players like Jordan Farmar, Nick Young, and Wes Johnson. Just don’t expect them to be able to stop anything more than a nosebleed.
With all that in mind, the predictions for this Laker team could fall anywhere between a lottery team and a playoff team, depending on how bold you want to get. Considering I’m in the mood to be bold today, let’s make some bold predictions on how this Laker season will turn out, some of which I believe, and some which are a bit farfetched. But you’ll never know which ones are which.