The Los Angeles Lakers will continue to matter in the next years

Last season was a complete disaster for the Lakers as they ended up missing the playoffs after a pathetic 33 wins. LeBron James and Anthony Davis missed big chunks of the season and Russell Westbrook set the worst stats of his career. Right now, the Lakers have the sixth or seventh best roster in the West and are projected to miss the playoffs once again. Despite all this, NBA analyst Marc Stain, believes that the Lakers will continue to be relevant in the following years.

The Lakers schedule was released a couple of days back, and now we know who the team will be facing. We also know that the Purple and Gold will have the second most national TV games in the whole league with 39, only behind the defending Champions, Golden State Warriors, who will have 42.  Even after the horrible season they had, TV executives think that the Lakers are the most polarizing team in the NBA, or at least that’s Marc Stain's point of view.

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“You’ll note that the Lakers, coming off a 33.win season, emerged with 39 nationally televised games (including NBA TV dates) when the 2022-23 schedule was released by the league office on Wednesday. With James under contract through at least 2023-24 now, and a season beyond that, if he invokes the player option, we know that the Lakers will continue to matter at that level irrespective of the moves they’re still trying to pull off” explained Stain.

The Lakers have the toughest schedule in the Western Conference but have one of the weakest rosters. This will add up to a disaster and probably to miss the playoffs for the second year in a row, and third time since LeBron James is with the team. Still, it seems that the League still believes the Lakers are the most popular team in the League even if they end up losing almost all of their national televised games in the upcoming season.

Can the Lakers compete for a spot in the playoffs?

The quick answer is yes. 20 out of 30 teams can enter the playoffs or at least have a chance through the play-in round. Still, the Lakers missed the cut last season with a better roster than the one that they have so far, at least on paper. The team will depend on LeBron James and Anthony Davis' health status. If they can play 60 games each, they might have a chance.