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Usually the end of a season near the bottom of the NBA at least can bring a team’s fan base hope of the lottery pick to come, but for the Los Angeles Lakers, getting another promising young player this summer is far from a guarantee.
The Lakers currently have the third-worst record in the NBA, which would leave them a 46.9 percent to keep their top-three protected first round pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, which will be conveyed to the Philadelphia 76ers if it falls fourth or below as the last result of the Steve Nash sign-and-trade.
The team seems pretty much set to finish with those odds as long as they continue their late-season surge, so the odds are better than not that the Lakers will lose their pick.
Even in the face of that overwhelming math, Lakers fans will not be deterred. Enter: a customized Lonzo (or maybe LaVar?) Ball jersey at Staples Center:
This guy really had a Lonzo Ball Lakers jersey made pic.twitter.com/rebNNltEVc
— Christian Cerda (@_Cerdafied_) April 10, 2017
Whether or not the Lakers keep their pick, you have to admire the belief of this guy.
And hey! If the Lakers keep their pick and take Ball, he can say he called it. Seems worth the risk, in my opinion.
Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.