Even with Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook playing some of their best basketball in over a year, the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t a good basketball team. Outside of their core three, the supporting cast just doesn’t have enough scoring potential to keep up with the competition.
So far this season, the purple and Gold are headed straight toward the lottery with one of the worst records in basketball. To make matters worse, they don’t own their own pick this summer. That belongs to the Pelicans, who could land the no. 1 pick if the Lakers keep losing at this pace.
Lakers Reportedly Fear Giving Pelicans Top Lottery Pick
Apparently, handing their enemy Victory Wemmbanyama on a silver platter is a fear that has already developed within the franchise amid their 3-10 start. Given how good the Pelicans would be with a big three of Victor, Zion, and Brandon Ingram, it’s not hard to imagine why the Lakers would want to avoid giving them a top spot in the draft.
On top of everything, because head coaches function as team spokesmen in the modern game more than they ever have before, Ham is the one who is asked to explain, over and over and over, why the Lakers and their various future Hall of Famers avoided slinking into Week 5 of the 2022-23 campaign with a share of league’s worst record only by beating Brooklyn on Sunday night to halt a five-game skid.
There is already a palpable fear inside (what I still like to call) Staples Center that the Purple & Gold are careening toward a draft in June in which the New Orleans Pelicans are gleefully positioned to swap picks with L.A. as a condition of the Anthony Davis blockbuster deal in July 2019.
Even if the Lakers do finish as one of the worst teams in the league this season, they won’t even have their own pick to give them an opportunity to get better.
Still, even amid trying times, head coach Darvin Ham is trying his best to stay positive,
“I’m thrilled,” Ham said. “I’m blessed, man. I wake up every morning, I see the sun in L.A. and I get to go to work with a bunch of beautiful people, man. I get disappointed, but I never get down. I never get that frustrated where I’m like, ‘Woe is me.’ Nah. We got some things we need to fix and we’ll fix them. And that’s the challenge of sitting in this seat. I’m thrilled to be here in front of all you beautiful people and I have a beautiful job. I get to work with beautiful human beings and coach beautiful human beings. I’m good, man. I’m good.”
It remains to be seen how this Lakers team will respond to this early adversity. With LeBron James showing his age, Anthony Davis struggling to carry a huge scoring load, and the supporting cast failing to hit open shots, the signs are not good for the Purple and Gold.
Still, there is some faith in what they can be in a few months, with everyone healthy and some more time to master the game plan. We will see soon enough if they have what it takes to turn it around.
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