there were a lot of trades last year so its easy to forget that for a lot of the year, the cavs PG were a broken IT2, calderon, and drose.

hill also wasn't very good.

It's not just that though, some have compared them to OKC/UTAH/DEN specifically as if there is a huge gap between them and the Lebron Lakers, which they happen to be right on but it's the other way.

OKC had a +3.5 net in the West, and it was closer to 5 prior to Roberson going down. They bring everyone back except a very negative player who had to get minutes, plus they add Noel who's a wildcard. They aren't particularly young but they are also not old. RWB had a terrible season by his standards and at the very least won't decline imo.

UTA had a +4.5 net ITW, and returned mostly everyone. They lost Rudy for 1/3 of the season and were one of the very best teams with him, plus their next best prospect has a year more development as well as some other young pieces.

Denver had a +1.6 net missing 48 games of their second best player. When he was on the court their team had the PD of a 55+ win team, and they are even younger than the Lakers. Perhaps most importantly they were massively better without their two worst players Mudiay and Chandler, and have since lost both.

The Lakers had a -1.5 net, and that's with huge contributions from Brook Lopez and Julius Randle, or 4000 of guys who were at the very least slightly positive. Those have been replaced with HUGE negatives in Rondo and Lance, and also McGee who was a big negative before joining the Warriors.

I don't see OKC getting worse, Utah should be better, and Denver will almost certainly be much improved.

Does adding Lebron plus the Laker's youth getting better put them on the same tier as the above? I'd say yes, but when you add the trade-outs of Lopez/Randle for Rondo/Lance/McGee it drops them below. Then you add the fact that there is pretty much zero fit on both sides of the ball, and I can really see scenarios where LAL are fighting just to get in.

Melo is going to be a Laker; if someone can salvage value from Melo, its Lebron.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...y-lebron-james

I get it they need better defenders than what Cleveland had but you still need to score at a good clip versus the Warriors and clear the lane for Lebron.

I mean, its reasonable to predict a decline, but it sure as hell hasnt happened yet. did you watch him last year? that was most certainly prime lebron.

Hot take prediction:

LeBron will be the best player in the league for the next 4 years, yet never reach the CF again.

How's he going to deal with playing with even more losers for 4 years? I figure if the Lakers don't get Kawhi or someone of similar stature, Lebron is going to beg out of LA.

Here's the thing though, what team in the West will be tanking next season? Phoenix Suns, Mavericks, Grizzles & hell even the Kings(no draft pick) will be trying to make the playoffs & the Clippers isn't in full tank mode either. There will be no off nights for Lebron & the Lakers & this team is barely a playoff team unless they get Kawhi, Lebron is about to age drastically in the nba.

We've seen Jordan play at the highest of levels until age 36 when he retired but he hasn't played as much basketball as Lebron at this age & the nba is like 10x more talented, especially the west. If no Kawhi this year for the Lakers it will be a rough rough season imo.

ya and I dont think that roster is better than the cavs. thats a whole lot of garbage. they better make some moves.

Except, but nah.

Lebron can force a trade anywhere for any player at anytime

2019 is going to be such an epic offseason. Have to figure Lakers find a way to be a top 2 team after the dust settles. And a decent chance Durant joins the Knicks or Sixers and tries to win as "the guy" which coupled with aging would really balance out the NBA.

if Durant leaves, GS is probably 80% favorite to get Kawhi

no CBA expert, but they prolly cant even sign him ala the cavs this year

How come there isn't really any talk about Butler? He recently said he wasn't happy with the team and he has a player option for 2019. He does have a 15% trade kicker. Still only 28.

1) the West is super strong
2) Utah is one of the best teams in the West
3) so what if Donovan Mitchell shoots 8 for 30, who else on that team is gonna score?

at most 2 of these statements are true

Cavs would have been 3rd best team itw tho

The West is weaker than it has been in recent history. Teams like Por/den/okc/uta/nop are meh. Spurs are dead.

Rockets got worse. Its a one team conference.

A 3 team trade between Twolves-Lakers & Spurs makes the most sense. Timberwolves would get young players in Lonzo + Ingram/Kuzma, Spurs get another allstar in Butler who seemingly wants to be there(Kyrie had Spurs on his list of teams to be traded to as well) & Lakers get Kawhi without giving up the farm.

Holy ****. Where can I buy this shirt?

Lonzo + Ingram is the farm especially when they already gave up Randle.

I don't think that is the case. Just GS is in a league of its own which makes the rest of the teams seem underwhelming.

It isn't necessarily that the 3-5 teams are that good for teams in that range, it's that 3-9 are all really good teams where if 1 of the teams in that range has a bad injury or a disappointing stretch, they could miss the playoffs. So the margin for error is very slim.

Even the Suns, Mavs, Grizz should be better than last year.

Tip top of the west has shrunk a little with the Spurs falling out significantly with a weaker rockets team taking it's place (last year they were comparable going forward they look weaker); bottom of the west playoff teams is definitely stronger. 2 years ago you had a 67 win Spurs team and a KD led Thunder.

4 seasons ago there were 6 teams with 55+ wins in the West. 9th seed had 45 wins. This season just 2 teams had over 50 wins in the West but the 9th seed also had 46 wins.

There have been some rumors about how he and Kyrie Irving want to play together. Also about how he is skeptical of Andrew Wiggins.

The Kings are looking for a SF, have cap space that allows for some flexibility in trades, and are bad at evaluating talent. Is there a Wiggins-to-Sacramento deal that is possible?