After the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night, the Lakers dropped to 18-34, allowing the Jazz to pass the Lakers in the Western Conference Standings. The Lakers currently stand at 14th place in the Western Conference, and the Sacramento Kings are just one game behind.
As expected, Laker frustrations ran high on Tuesday night, even Mike D’Antoni received his first technical of the season. At just 18 wins in 52 games, many Lakers fans have taken a ‘Team Tank’ approach and rooting for the Lakers to lose with hopes that the Lakers are in a better position for draft picks come June. However, Chris Kaman assured fans Tuesday night that chasing picks is absolutely not the approach of this team.
Everybody knows we want to win. It’s not like we are out here trying to chase picks, that’s not what we’re doing at all, I promise. I don’t think anybody thinks that way. It’s frustrating, the team that’s trying to go for picks, and when they (Utah) beat us by 20.”
No offense to Utah but they’re just about as bad this year as we’ve been, with the exception that we have some injuries, and so it’s frustrating to lose by 20 like that.”
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has insisted that the Lakers will not tank this season. Kupchak’s right. In this scenario, to tank insinuates that a team intentionally loses games in order to chase picks. This isn’t intentional. The Lakers may find themselves in a decent position on NBA Draft Day, but it’s truly because this current Lakers roster, just isn’t any good.
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