Remember that I was the first analyst to say that no one should be surprised if, by the time all is said and done, the Lakers and Warriors prove so garbage that they're eligible to draft Victor Wembanyama -barring draft swaps and all that other kinda shit.
I'll be honest and say that, when this season actually began, I didn't expect Golden State to be as bad as they're currently playing, just six months after winning the championship. But there are two realated factors that I did acknowledge along the way. First is that, whereas they may have beat the Celtics legitimately, the Dubs making it to the 2022 Finals to begin with was kinda suspect. And second is that the core of their team is dumb old. Age can be a funny thing sometimes, folks. Like you may experience a revival here and there, but expecting to keep up with the young bucks on a daily basis is unrealistic.
The reason the Warriors are such a tough out, even if the other team is young, is because they can hit three-pointers like no other squad in NBA history. But that take (i.e. Steph) away from them and oh shit, dudes is looking like the worst team in the league.
It would've also helped, imo, if they had put a higher premium on continuity, i.e. retaining the services of Payton Jr. (whatever happened to that guy?), Damion Lee and even Juan Toscano-Anderson. But I understand why, for monetary reasons, that too is unrealistic.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Cali, the pairing of Lebron James and Anthony Davis was supposed to be the most formidable ever. But the history books will not reflect that ideology because their winning percentage together is more or less average. That's the kinda shit that happens when your franchise player is one who's injury prone. The media has been dickridin Darvin Ham lately for instituting a strategy I've been espousing for three years at least, which is making AD play the 5 (and in the post). And the fact that at the beginning of the season Ham actually stated that the fate of the Lakes was in Davis's hands shows that he's not much of a guru, as he should've rather been developing a contingency plan for when Anthony inevitably got hurt, such as now forcing Lebron to play the 5.
But maybe winning isn't really their goal, as fresh after AD's injury now we see LBJ, Westbrook and even Austin Reaves being given time off. Finally, the Lakers have come to appreciate the value that a quality, jump-shooting whiteboy brings to the court. And the way they're acting now is almost like they're already preparing for next season. And why not, because they do tend to suck when AD isn't playing.
It seems that the Lakers don't even own their first-round pick for the coming draft(s). Quite ironically, they gave it up to the Pelicans when they traded for AD. So who knows? Maybe they'll end up with Wembanyama instead, and LAL's future strategy is more along the lines of getting rid of Westbrook and moving on from there.
However by the looks of things, the Warriors do own their 2023 first-round pick. And let's just say that they're one of the luckier teams in the NBA. For instance after sucking in the NBA in 2020, the Dubs did get the number 2 draft pick (which ended up James Wiseman), even though they had won a championship as recently as 2018. The same pundits who were like applauding Golden State's defense a couple of weeks ago are now saying that they can't play D for shit. History has proven that once the Dubs start hitting their threes, they're unbeatable. So they can get hot at any time and turn things around, kinda like last season. But Steve Kerr is overrated as a coach imo, and the core was already worn down even as far back as 2020, so don't think that lightning can't strike twice.
CONCLUSION
I don't believe that scoring the first pick in the NBA Draft is as random as ping-pong balls or an arbitrary computer program. And I would also say that the one team who deserves Wembanyama the most, all things considered, is the Spurs. The funny thing though is that some of the teams who were earlier believed to be firmly in the sweepstakes, like the Jazz and Thunder, have been overachieving. Meanwhile the Lakers, with three indisputable future Hall of Famers on their squad, have one of the worst records in the league, and the Warriors ain't too far ahead of them.
So maybe by the time the season is over, as I alluded to earlier, the Dubs will start to take their youth movement more seriously than just starting dudes when the old guys get hurt. And if so, of course getting Victor Wembanyama would be a major accomplishment. Then maybe they'll finally feel confident enough to like bring the Splash Bros. off the bench and stuff like that.
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