Coming into the season, the Los Angeles Lakers weren’t expected to be good, even after the acquisitions of familiar names Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer. And to this point, they haven’t been. The Lakers are currently 5-16 and mere percentage points ahead of the Timberwolves for worst record in the Western Conference.
At this pace, Los Angeles is comfortably headed for a spot in the NBA Draft Lottery, likely with a decent chance at one of the top picks. And that’s perfectly fine with Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who subscribes to the theory that being bad enough to get a high draft pick can help accelerate the turnaround process.
“If you’re going to lose, you have to lose because you can’t be in the middle of the pack,” Johnson said via ESPNLA. “You either have to be great or you have to be bad to get a good pick.”
Johnson makes a good point about being in the middle of the pack. Reaching the playoffs as a seven or eight seed “rewards” you with a matchup against one of the conference’s top two seeds and the real possibility of an early postseason exit. Being among the first teams on the outside looking in dimishes your chance of a top five pick in the draft, thus missing out on the upper echelon prospects. Either scenario can lead to a team treading water.
For the Lakers, and their fan base, that’s unacceptable. Championships are the goal and aspiration, always.
While the prospect of losing isn’t popular in the short term, it does help in the long run, as Johnson states. Another lottery talent to go along with this year’s seventh overall pick (Julius Randle), plus the notion that the Lakers will always be able to attract free agents, gives the potential for Los Angeles to return the ways they’ve become accustomed to sooner rather than later.
