The Lakers have been in a rut as of late but despite their huge bankroll and high draft pick, ESPN maintains that they’re still at the bottom of the totem pole
Power rankings haven’t been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers as of late, and for good reason. In the past three seasons the team has combined for just 65 wins, the same amount of losses they had last season alone.
Despite racking up three top 10 draft picks in a row, the team has failed to reel in any free agents of significant value in the same time span. This resulted in a pre-season power ranking of 27th overall by NBA.com a low bar which the team still failed to actualize — predicted to go 21-61 the team fell short by four wins.
Now, however, primed with the most cap space of any team this offseason, likely upwards of $60 million, and a top two draft pick, experts are still sleeping on the Lakers.
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In Chad Ford and Kevin Pelton’s latest 2016 NBA Future Power Rankings that predicts where the each team will land in the “2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons” the Lakers once again sit near the bottom of the totem pole.
Determined using five categories — players (50 percent), management (16.7 percent), money (16.7 percent), market (8.3 percent) and draft (8.3 percent) — the Lakers were relatively sub-par in all categories except two, money and market, which they were actually number one in.
Likely on account of the fact that the future of the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office and management is unclear, the team ranked 27th in management — “Quality and stability of front office, ownership, coaching.” Even more surprising, however, was the fact that the Lakers ranked 29th in players — “Current players and their potential for the future, factoring in expected departures.”
Though this doesn’t factor in the players that the team could draw in over the course of the three to four year period, it’s hard to imagine teams like New York Knicks or even the Memphis Grizzlies’ current players having brighter futures than the Lakers’ young core.
It has been the hope of the entire Lakers’ fan base for the past few seasons that the team defy the odds and prove all of these power rankings wrong, but sadly the Purple and Gold has failed to do so time and time again.
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With that in mind, this summer will prove crucial to the Lakers’ power rankings going forward and determine just how quickly it will take them to return to form.