The worst: Sitting through a 17-win season
Some notes on the Lakers’ franchise-worst 17-win season.
- There are 82 games in an NBA season. In the 2015-16 season, the Lakers won 17 of those games.
- By this time last year (Dec. 31), the Lakers had only won six games.
- Kobe Bryant was the leading scorer on the team, averaging 17.6 points per game on 35.8 percent shooting from the field.
- The starting lineup consisted of rookie D’Angelo Russell, sophomore stud Jordan Clarkson, 37-year-old Kobe Bryant, *rookie Julius Randle and the remains of Roy Hibbert.
- Tarik Black and Nick Young had a tough time cracking the rotation, because Robert Sacre and Metta World Peace were just too good.
- Ryan Kelly occasionally played small forward.
- Byron Scott was the head coach.
Make sense? It should.
The best: Drafting Brandon Ingram
The 2016 draft class had very little hype surrounding it. Outside of Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram and a handful of streaky guards, the class of 2016 was pretty underwhelming. If there was a year to miss out on a draft, this year would have been it.
However, luck would have it that the lottery balls fell in the Lakers’ favor and the team ended up with the No. 2 pick in the draft. At that point, the decision was simple: take whoever Philadelphia doesn’t take.
Leading up to the draft, Ben Simmons was considered the consensus No. 1 pick, but with Philly’s frontcourt logjam, there was a chance they could have gone with a guard or a wing. Did they? Of course not. They’re the 76ers.
So with Simmons off the board, the Lakers decided to take the smooth, slim scorer out of Duke.
While it’s a little early in his career to make any real judgements, something tells me this kid is going to be the real deal.