Early Lakers regular season win total over-under is incredibly high

The Los Angeles Lakers have yet to sign a free agent this summer but that hasn’t stopped one sports betting site from projecting big things from the purple and gold. BetOnline.ag decided they have enough intel, for the most part, to project future win totals for the league ahead of the rest of the Las Vegas pack.

The Boston Celtics and Utah Jazz remain off the board while both franchise’s sort out the Gordon Hayward situation, potentially evolving into a sign-and-trade involving Jae Crowder. The rest of the win totals are in, and a 36.5 over-under on regular season victories for the Lakers seems incredibly high before the team has played a single Las Vegas Summer League game.

This reflects a high level of confidence in Lonzo Ball, Brook Lopez and steady development from the rest of the core. It could also reflect that the sports book is hoping gassed-up Lakers fans are ready to put money down on the team improving with the vision of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka being fully implemented.

To put it in perspective, the Lakers haven’t won more than 36 games since the 2012-2013 season, when Kobe Bryant essentially dragged the Lakers to 45 wins while Dwight Howard struggled to be the once-dominant center he was following back surgery.

36.5 wins is more than the Atlanta Hawks (34.5), Brooklyn Nets (21.5), Chicago Bulls (29.5), Dallas Mavericks (34.5), LA Clippers (34.5), New York Knicks (34.5), Phoenix Suns (25.5), Portland Trail Blazers (35.5) and Sacramento Kings (25.5).

Las Vegas books are waiting for the rest of free agency to play out, but if you want to jump at a fairly-high win total on the Lakers, the chance to do it is now.