The short answer is they may not be a lock to make it out of the first round. Let’s take a look at the facts before making Los Angeles Lakers your NBA pick for the 2021-2022 Championship.
The Lakers went on a veteran signing spree this offseason and while they got a ton of good names with a lot left on their tires, the risks of signing so many older players are already playing out in the preseason.
Trevor Ariza will miss the first couple of months of the season after sustaining an arthroscopic debridement in his right ankle.
Now news broke on Monday that Talen Horton-Tucker, who is expected to play solid minutes for this bench unit this season, has a torn ligament in his thumb that will require surgery.
Add in the smaller injuries that Kendrick Nunn and Malik Monk are dealing with and the Lakers may be missing half of their bench depth when they tip off the regular season.
This is not a promising sign for the oldest team in the NBA. The Lakers’ average age is already nearly five years older than the league average in age.
Things could obviously shape up as the Lakers move through the season, but I’ve never been one to bet on the veteran super teams. I need to see them not constantly getting hurt in order to have any faith in betting on their future odds.
Not only are the Lakers dealing with injury and being the oldest team in the league, but their prized acquisition over the summer is so far not shaping up.
Russell Westbrook has looked pretty bad in his first couple of preseason games with the Lakers. I’m not one to write off a player of Westbrook’s talent and work ethic after a few bad games, but the things holding him back playing in other situations are the same ones holding him back with LA.
He has turned the ball over a ton as he tries to acclimate with his new teammates and he is still plagued by defenders going under screens and daring him to shoot the ball.
The Lakers can’t play him off the ball because of his lack of shooting and they are stuck with his contract for which they gave up a ton of assets.
I expect Westbrook to find his groove, but it’s going to be a work in progress and may not pan out as well as Laker fans were expecting when the trade happened.
Not only do the Lakers have to acclimate their third star and deal with an aging and potentially injury-prone roster, but the Western Conference is still taking no prisoners.
We saw what a prolonged injury to LeBron James did to the Lakers’ playoff seeding last season and all it will take is a couple more injuries for LA to lose out on home-court advantage.
There are simply too many what-ifs for this roster to bet on them in the future NBA odds, but surely that won’t stop the betting public from doing it anyway. LA is on my fade list until they start to show some cohesion and durability on the court.
Lakers Season Win Total: Under 53.5 (-125) at BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review)
Lakers Season Win Total: Over 53.5 (-105) at BetOnline
NBA Championship Odds: Lakers to win NBA Championship (+350) at BetOnline
NBA Western Conference Finals Odds: Lakers to win Western Conference (+190) at BetOnline
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.