Thanks to a few nice additions the Los Angeles Lakers have made to their roster this summer, plenty of people feel the team has some upward potential this upcoming season. Deandre Ayton represents a major upgrade at the center position, while former Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart should add defensive prowess, secondary playmaking and overall toughness and resourcefulness.
But others aren’t so bullish on the Lakers ahead of the new NBA season. ESPN polled its NBA insiders on a number of issues, and when it came to which team is most likely to take a tumble in terms of wins, the Lakers got 32 polling points, which was second only to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Advertisement
It isn’t entirely clear why so many insiders feel the Lakers will win a significantly lower number of games than they did last season. Many say the Western Conference has gotten tougher, but a few teams in the conference will also get worse, and therefore, the West as a whole may not be measurably better.
Perhaps some are predicting that LeBron James will finally fall off a cliff in terms of his production or demand to be traded by the midseason trade deadline. Even if he demands a trade, executing one would be extremely difficult, and that is something his camp is reportedly aware of.
The one legitimate concern about L.A. this season is defense, a department in which the team seems to be lacking.
Other than Smart, who some think will be a shell of his former self, the team lacks standout individual defenders, and the lack of defensive ability in Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves is worrisome. However, the Lakers have likely gotten a lot better offensively, and that should at least somewhat mitigate what they lack defensively.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: NBA insiders predict Lakers’ win total will fall this season