Nick Young says the Lakers’ goal is to win 30 games

The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t going to be a playoff team. Such heights seemed like a possibility when the team rolled to a 10-10 start, but the Lakers now sit at 19-39, the third-worst record in the entire NBA.

What is unknown is how many games the purple and gold can actually win, or whether or not Nick Young will even be with the team for the remainder of the season. He said this weekend that if the team deals him, he hopes it’s to a playoff team, but if they don’t, he says the Lakers have other goals in mind outside of the postseason.

Young told Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times that the Lakers are aiming to win 30 games this season, and that they wanted to win 20 by the All-Star break. The team fell just short of the former, but could they do the latter?

With just 24 games left in the season, the Lakers would have to go at least 11-13 to reach their goal, a nearly .500 level of play that the team has shown no propensity to sustain over the last several months.

Getting 30 wins isn’t impossible, and it’s good for their culture that the Lakers players aren’t just throwing in the towel on the year, but fans also shouldn’t hold their breath for the team to hit that mark.

All stats per NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.