Which would be better for the Lakers at this point? Management seems to be content to wait until the season is over to make any moves and I doubt this team can get out of the first round of the playoffs, so should Laker fans root for the Twolves so we can get a lottery pick? That point guard for Illinois would be a great fit for the Lakers.
I vote for playoffs even if it's the 8th spot and we face San Antonio. The Lakers have the talent to win a 7 game series against anyone in the West, even the Spurs. I think the Lakers will be a better playoff team than a regular season team, and are capable of pulling a 1st round upset. The Lakers have to make monumental improvements on defense, and with the team getting healthy this is acheivable. Even in the likely event the Lakers do lose in the first round, they will have something to build on, and have a year of experience playing together in the post-season. To me, that is more valuable than what a lottery pick would bring to this team. As for getting a pick...first off, I'm not confident in Mitch Kupchak drafting the right player for the team. I also don't see any sure things in this draft, like a LeBron James or Carmelo. The Lakers won't really benefit from having a player take two years to develop into a pro.
"You play to win the game" Pretty famous words. Every team that considers themselves as "Pro's" should play every game to Win. Ive heard this a couple times before, "Why bother going to the playoffs if your gonna lose?" thats simply some of the dumbest crap ive ever heard. Answer is simple...you play to win the game. Most teams are vulnerable if their main guy goes down (Duncan,Nash)....you never know what could happen, therefore you play to get to the playoffs...then you take it game by game. Look at last years Heat team. DMK
I'm going with lottery. I think it will be just a matter of time until Minnesota gets their acts together. LA is decent but, I don't know if they have what it takes to get to the post season party but then again...they do have Kobe so we'll see what happens. It should be interesting though.
The lottery pick will not even be in the top 10 that wouldnt make sense for the Lakers to try and not make the playoffs... I think they will win the 8th seed barely and take San Antonio all 5 games..
Playoffs. There isn't really anyone who is eye-popping in the draft this year, and we have the capability of upsetting any team.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Bodiddly14:</div><div class="quote_post">The lottery pick will not even be in the top 10 that wouldnt make sense for the Lakers to try and not make the playoffs... I think they will win the 8th seed barely and take San Antonio all 5 games..</div> Its been a 7 game series for about 3 years now.**
I'd have to say that I'd much rather have the playoffs. I think the Lakers have the talent to play with and beat almost any team in the NBA, it's just a matter of working together on both sides of the court. They have a problem at times with playing team ball and playing good defense on a consistent basis. If they were able to fix these problems come playoff time or at some point after the All Star Break, I think this will be a very tough team for anyone to compete with come playoff time, be it the Suns, Spurs, Sonics, or any other team in the West for that matter. They just need to put it together on both sides of the court on a consistent basis.