I mean, Luka and a bunch of bums is about enough to get you to the playins in the west

Luka complains some. Anything he does is invalid according to ESPN

Lakers are playing better than the narrative would suggest, 3-7 is a jumbled mess

This is a gap year too imagine when Luka has nba level teammates

Luka will still be 6 spots behind Jokic in the MVP ladder though

They’re under magnifying glass for sure just for being the Lakers, but there’s many sides to the story. They’re 7th in the West against .500+ teams with 16-20 record, but also 4th in the West overall with 40-25 record. All I know is Playoff Luka hits different and I’m excited to see what the game looks like.

The Lakers are playing with house moneyntoo. Real fans with realistic expectations know that the window starts after Lebron. As sad as it sounds as I became a Laker fan because of Lebron, this team won’t go anywhere with him taking that kind of money.

This is probably the season where my glorious king has slowed down the most compared to the previous season. Injuries are piling up, and fuck Solomon Hill for robbing us of probably 2 more years of Lebron playing at an all nba level.

I mean, they could very much still be in the play-in thanks to PHX holding the tiebreaker over us. When can we send the Wolves and the Spurs to the Eastern Conference?

To be clear, there was a moment when the Lakers was the 6-seed. Just shows how tight the damn thing is.

3rd place is so disingenuous

2 games from the play in

Because their losses looked worse than the losses of the other teams, at one point in the season everytime they were losing it was always in a blowout

1 loss and they are fighting for a play-in spot. I don’t know why this seems to be so difficult to understand lol.

Definitely! None of the teams can cruise thinking the playoff spot is secured. Would be the weirdest timeline if Nuggets drop to play-in and get knocked out by Blazers or something.

We have tie breakers over the lakers and wolves, so if all 3 finish dead even we get the highest seeding

It sucks because these playoff matchups are gonna be crazy. My heart wants to sic Wemby on OKC right out of the gate, but their recent tear says they’re gunning for a WCF.

What really sucks is that this is the best Wolves team in history and a better team than last season that went to WCF… but I can’t really see us reaching the finals with how stacked the West is.

I’ll take the Lakers, but you guys can have Minny and Denver. 🥲

I feel like we both would rather be against the Rockets and Suns on whatever run is about to happen.

Honestly except for maybe Denver, I don’t see any of them making that far of a run, if I had to guess the season will come down to a OKC/SA matchup in the conference finals with that team probably winning no the whole thing. Every other team in the West just seems way too flawed to make it out of the conference.

I’m hoping for Nuggets, OKC or Wolves matchup because that would be peak basketball, and regardless of the outcome, that’s valuable experience for the young guys for years to come

Nah, the Lakers will be easy AF.

You aren’t getting past the second round no matter who you get sorry

It wouldn’t even be random, the clippers are running hot

Still probably wouldn’t be enough to get out the playin tbh

Well, if it’s anything like last year lu dort will hurt the 8th seed’s best player and the thunder will roll that team

That’s actually insane to think about. There really are no easy matchups in the playoffs.

The west really isn’t that good this year.

The sicko in me wants to see what the fallout would be from such a collapse

This team has been streaky all year. There will probably be another to and down before the season even begins. Julius is in an all timer slump, and Rudy looks sick of covering for his teammates’ lacadaisacal defensive effort.

That would be my Wolves with how unserious they seem to be lately.

It truly is a blessing to not have to worry about seeding. Just focus on yourself and being healthy for the playoffs.

And every team wants their coach fired

You said that in another comment, but it’s not true. The Suns have the 11th toughest remaining schedule in the league based on the records of their opponents (Lakers 13th, Rockets 21st), plus the Suns play 11 of their last 17 games on the road.

I’m certainly biased, but a Suns matchup is a nightmare in the first round. We just picked up Highsmith. Dillon Brooks and Mark Williams are hurt/getting rest, set to return before play-ins and playoffs. In their absence, Rasheer Fleming with his 7’6 wingspan has come to fruition as a defensive nightmare and Maluach is finally seeing the floor, already producing defensively in his 15-20 minutes per game. I don’t think the Suns escape the first round, but they are 15 deep, defensive nightmares for any 1st round opponent, and said opponent will have to expend a considerable amount of energy in that series.

I find all these predictions to be particularly unrealistic, except the OKC vs Golden State one

Luka made it to the conference finals in 22 with Mavs roster that is worse than the current Lakers one.

They won’t. I’d put the over/under of total playoff wins at 0.5