Lakers refuse to tank despite hurting lottery odds

The Los Angeles Lakers’ recent victory over the Sacramento Kings gives them more momentum heading into the offseason and less of a chance at keeping their top-three draft pick.

Much to the ado of Laker fans, at least across social media, their team is actually winning. Although fans cheer in the stands, they are crying on twitter. That’s because with every Lakers win comes worse odds of keeping a lottery pick in this year’s draft. But despite the overwhelming preference for L.A. to tank, the team continues to play hard and win as much as possible.

After the Lakers’ 98-94 win over the Kings, which marked their third-straight victory, Julius Randle said that L.A. doesn’t believe in tanking and that, “It’ll come back to haunt you.” The Lakers are currently (24-55), 1.5 games better that the Phoenix Suns (23-57) who is their competition in the “tank” race. With just three games left in the season, it seems as if the Suns will secure the second-worst record in the NBA, while L.A. will hold the third worst. That puts the Lakers’ chances of securing their top-three protected pick in the draft at 46.9 percent. If they were the second-worst team in the league, their chances of keeping their pick would rise to 55.8%.

Mar 19, 2017; Sacramento, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Lonzo Ball (2) look on in game against the Cincinnati Bearcats during the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports /

Whether or not the L.A. keeps their pick seems to be of no concern to the team. The players and head coach Luke Walton all are in favor of playing to win. Mark Medina of the Orange County Register reports that Walton is content with his players’ effort and that they are having fun competing.

"“We’re getting team effort from everybody right now.’ “They’re rising to the challenge and competing mainly on the defensive end. They’re having fun in there competing. When we were playing well earlier in the year, that’s what we were doing. Losing took that from us. We found that at the last couple of games.”"

Walton also added that the fans were “going nuts” for the team. He believes fans are behind the guys, at least the fans that show up to games.

When asked what they thought about tanking and fans yelling “Tank for Ball” all the players expressed more concern over what is happening inside the organization and little to no care about what the fans think. In a postgame interview, Randle said, “You don’t do that. You have to treat the game with respect..I don’t care. We know what’s going on in this locker room. So we don’t care.”

Rookie Brandon Ingram had a similar response,

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"“As a player, we come in here to do our job every single day, to win basketball games and to play our role on the basketball team. We can’t listen to anyone else. We come in, compete as a unit and listen to the coaches and everybody around us. We can’t listen to anyone else about how we do our job.”"

So as fans, well, Twitter-finger fans, lament over the Lakers’ inability to tank right, the team itself is rejoicing over a solid string of games and the progress they’re making at the end of the season. They are more focused on getting better now with the players they currently have, than hoping to get another talented rookie that could change their fortunes.

With this season being a wash, tanking for a top-three draft pick seemed like the only positive outcome for the year. But the resolve L.A. has shown recently is a welcomed sight. If Randle, Ingram, and D’Angelo Russell continue trending upward, with or without a top pick, the Lakers are headed in the right direction and next season may be a lot different.

What do you think about the Lakers refusing to tank? Are they better off trying to win games or are they losing by winning?

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