How good will the 2015-2016 Lakers be?

[SwayDizzle]

With the valiant god returning to lead his talented group of youngsters, I say WCF at worst.

[Xiao Yao You]

If Kobe goes down again they might be competitive.

[KNOW1EDGE]

Top 16 in the West fa sho!

Sky's the limit!

[JT123]

If Kobe goes down again they might be competitive.

This. As long as cancerbe is on the floor, my Lakers will be AWFUL
Take a look at his contributions last season

[B]Kobe ranks among the worst players in the league this season in a number of categories:

[BlackWhiteGreen]

32-50

[TheMarkMadsen]

over or under 12 threads per day from Kobe/Laker haters this year..

[WayOfWade]

Better than Last years Lakers, but not as good as the '14 Lakers. In other words, they'll suck

[Smoke117]

over or under 12 threads per day from Kobe/Laker haters this year..

And yet you have to post in EVERY SINGLE ONE. Oh and "laker haters"...lol. No one cares about the lakers enough to hate them anymore...nor do we consider you kobe stans to even be true laker fans.





On a thread note...I'm curious if Kobe will take a step back or he will be the same guy he was last year. (you know...taking 18 foot turn arounds with two or three guys in his face) This is more a question about his ego more than anything. The Lakers have no chance of making the playoffs, period. He knows it, we know it, everyone knows it. I'm curious to see if he will put his team or his ego first because it's obviously better for the Lakers to have the young guys much involved and developing. I actually hope he stays the same kobe as he was last season...get that missed shot record to a point where no one will ever surpass it.

[Akrazotile]

As mentioned, it all depends on Kobe's health.

Without him, this team doesnt stand a chance at a top 5 pick. With him in the lineup, theyre probably firing coaches and picking first.

Which in a way is a good thing. You could argue they oughtta extend him for another couple of years.

[Levity]

with Kobe healthy and returning, and Russel and Randle getting to show what they got on the court, i can easily see this team as a top 2 [color=white]talked about team on this forum[/color]

and anyone who disagrees is a blind hater with no knowledge of the game.

[Naero]

If Kobe goes down again they might be competitive.

This. As long as cancerbe is on the floor, my Lakers will be AWFUL
Take a look at his contributions last season

Kobe ranks among the worst players in the league this season in a number of categories:

• 124th in field goal percentage (third-worst among qualified players)

• 103rd in 3-point percentage (fifth-worst)

• 74th in player efficiency rating

• 361st in win shares

Kobe's 0.1 win shares are the fewest of the 73 players to play at least 1,200 minutes this season.

2014-15 Lakers record:
Without Kobe: 11-36 (23.4% winning percentage).
With Kobe: 10-25 (28.5% winning percentage).

Their with- and without-Kobe win-loss compilations substantiate that they played worse without Kobe—in by far the most inefficient season of his career as well, I might add. Considering how sizeable these record splits are in their game totals, the Lakers had more than enough games to prove they can play "competitively" without the 36-year-old, injury-decimated Kobe if they were able to seize those strides at all.

On-topic:

It would be the Cinderella story of the year for the Lakers to even flirt with playoff-seeding. For yet another off-season, the most underscored improvements to the Lakers' lottery-contention roster comprise of reclamation projects—but I'll take Roy Hibbert over both Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer for his defensive upside, at least—and another batch of draftees.

Moreover, the man at the helm (Byron Scott) may have been given a pass due to having a paucity of talent to work with; but even with bottom-most-tier rosters, you need to evaluatingly how much the coach is overachieving or underachieving with the roster, and results point towards the latter so far. After all, this is the same coach that Mike Brown—his successor to head-coaching the Cavaliers—compiled a better winning record with after inheriting virtually the same team Scott coached the previous season—except for the addition of draft-bust Anthony Bennett.

The only player fully developed, experienced and masterful enough to be be the definitive team-leader—an unequivocal distinction that every championship-contender has historically had—is Kobe Bryant, and he does not have the health or playing style to be efficient enough as the team's main shot-taker. I expect his efficience to improve because Scott won't mismanage his minutes as badly this season, and also because he was increasingly inclined to playing a Magic Johnson-mode role just before he was injuriously sidelined (notched a career-high 17 assists in his second-last game, iirc); but he simply can no longer have the onerous usage rate needed to lead this team in the playoffs, regardless of his personal effectivity in that limited usage.

They will overachieve against outmatching teams at some point, as they have a glut of talented rookies and sophomores that simply aren't seasoned enough to make the adjustments needed to produce well consistently; but in a league that predicates consistence around success, they simply lack the fully developed talent and competent coaching staff to compete consistently—especially in a Western Conference that co-tenants stacked and well-coached teams wherein at least 6-7 teams are surefire lock-ins for the playoffs.

33 wins is my ceiling for this team.

[Smoke117]

2014-15 Lakers record:
Without Kobe: 11-36 (23.4% winning percentage).
With Kobe: 10-25 (28.5% winning percentage).

Their with- and without-Kobe win-loss compilations substantiate that they played worse without Kobe—in by far the most inefficient season of his career as well, I might add. Considering how sizeable these record splits are in their game totals, the Lakers had more than enough games to prove they can play "competitively" without the 36-year-old, injury-decimated Kobe if they were able to seize those strides at all.

On-topic:

It would be the Cinderella story of the year for the Lakers to even flirt with playoff-seeding. For yet another off-season, the most underscored improvements to the Lakers' lottery-contention roster comprise of reclamation projects—but I'll take Roy Hibbert over both Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer for his defensive upside, at least—and another batch of draftees.

Moreover, the man at the helm (Byron Scott) may have been given a pass due to having a paucity of talent to work with; but even with bottom-most-tier rosters, you need to evaluatingly how much the coach is overachieving or underachieving with the roster, and results point towards the latter so far. After all, this is the same coach that Mike Brown—his successor to head-coaching the Cavaliers—compiled a better winning record with after inheriting virtually the same team Scott coached the previous season—except for the addition of draft-bust Anthony Bennett.

They will overachieve against outmatching teams at some point, as they have a glut of talented rookies and sophomores that simply aren't seasoned enough to make the adjustments needed to produce well consistently; but in a league that predicates consistence around success, they simply lack the fully developed talent and competent coaching staff to compete consistently—especially in a Western Conference that co-tenants stacked and well-coached teams wherein at least 6-7 teams are surefire lock-ins for the playoffs.

33 wins is my ceiling for this team.

Byron Scotts main problem is that he's a kobe stan. He's basically happy letting him do whatever he pleases. This leads me to believe that Jason Kidd was the true coach of those nets teams.

[Asukal]

They are going to be shit as usual.

[Vaniiiia]

If Kobe stays healthy they'll be a bottom 3 team in the league.

If Kobe gets hurt again, they have a shot at making the playoffs.

As mentioned above, Kobes health is paramount.

[Spurs m8]

Not very good at all tbh
12th in West is best case scenario