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This past summer, the Los Angeles Lakers added LeBron James, which essentially “won” them the offseason by itself. Signing veteran role players who could make a legitimate impact on this team like Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee to go with James and the young core already in place might give this team a chance a not only making the playoffs, but doing so comfortably.
Those moves haven’t gone unnoticed by Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka’s fellow executives. In this year’s annual general manager survey on NBA.com, the moves the Lakers made earned them recognition as the best offseason across the entire league.
The results went as follows.
Which team made the best overall moves this offseason?
1. L.A. Lakers – 70%
2. Toronto – 20%
Also receiving votes: Dallas, Indiana, Oklahoma City
When you add the player these GMs consider the favorite for MVP, you win the offseason. That’s just kind of how it works.
How will the best summer translate looking ahead to next year? Well, the Lakers, coming off a 35-win season, should be in line for a nice jump in that category, according to the league’s GMs.
Which team will be most improved in 2018-19?
1. L.A. Lakers – 80%
2. Dallas – 7%
Phoenix – 7%
Also receiving votes: Chicago, Orlando
The Lakers having such a commanding percentage of votes here makes perfect sense. They added James and the aforementioned veterans; their young core of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma are going to develop, and at the very least, there’s hope Ball might miss fewer than the 30 games he did last year (he’s been cleared to maybe play Thursday, by the way) and you know what, James is good enough to be mentioned twice here.
If those things all happen and they stay relatively healthy, there’s no conceivable reason why the Lakers shouldn’t see a double-digit jump in wins at the very least, and they should pretty comfortably make the playoffs.