This Monday through Friday, I’m going to give my season predictions in a countdown from worst to first. The format will be three teams per post, one post in the morning and one in the afternoon. Whichever team you’re a fan of, there’s a good chance you’ll feel like I’m disrespecting them. I understand this, and I promise you I won’t take your insults personally.
6. Los Angeles Lakers
A lot of people want to assign teams like the Lakers and Celtics a certain mystique as if what happens in the real world doesn’t change the fact that they’re the Lakers and Celtics and they’ll either meet in the Finals or come close to doing so. Meanwhile, neither of those teams made the Conference Finals last season and nobody of sound mind would claim they’re entering his season in better shape than the last one. Of course, the real indignity here is that I would dare to rank the Clippers ahead of the Lakers.
Andrew Bynum will miss the first five games of the regular season because of his grotesque mugging of J.J. Barea in the closing minutes of the Mavericks’ second round sweep of the Lakers, but if Bynum returns motivated and bucks the odds by staying healthy, he could be the second-best center in the NBA and the best player on this team. People who think that Dwight Howard is the only truly dominating center in the league haven’t been paying attention to what Bynum can do when he’s on a roll. Kobe will continue to get all the attention because of the drama in his personal life and because he’s Kobe, but if Kobe is going to improbably win a sixth ring this season, it will be because everything finally fell into place for the big man — mentally and physically.
