The Los Angeles Lakers have won the 2019-20 championship with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. They had a good squad of veterans around them, but some of those veterans have moved on to greener pastures: Dwight Howard signed with the Philadelphia 76ers, and Rajon Rondo left to backup Trae Young with the Atlanta Hawks. They were an integral part of the rotation last season, so losing them will be an adjustment.
The Warriors decided to go with more offensive firepower, as signified by their acquisitions of Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schroder. While they may not be the extremely stout defensive unit they were last year, the Los Angeles Lakers should still be good. FiveThirtyEight used their Raptor forecast to simulate the standings for the 2020-21 season recently. As expected, the Los Angeles Lakers were still the favorites to win the Championship. They are projected to have a 48-24 record, and a 21% chance to win the title. Those are good numbers considering the number of teams in the NBA.
The Lakers also have a whopping 33% chance to make it out of the Western Conference according to the forecast. The next best are the Clippers with 22%. The Los Angeles Lakers making it out of the Western Conference with two superstars is the bare minimum with the amount of talent that is on the roster: luckily it seems as though the numbers favor their acquisitions. They are far and ahead of every team in the Conference, which is why James Harden’s destination becomes so important. No-one is beating the Lakers now, barring a trade.
The question isn’t who will beat the Lakers, it is more so how exactly, will anyone beat the Lakers? They have a powerhouse team that is good to the naked eye. Sometimes stats and analytic don’t support our base assumptions as fans; this time, however, the numbers are just predicting the obvious.
