Lakers set themselves to succeed.

The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the greatest franchises of all time, known for having fantastic big men, winning records, and a myriad of championships, but this season has been the complete opposite for them. With their loss to the Timberwolves, they have a 24-48 record, putting them as the 14th team in the West, only ahead of the atrocious Jazz. Whilst this season was never planned to be a fantastic year in Laker lore, it was never meant to be as bad as this. They dealt without having their All-Star Kobe Bryant for all but 6 games of the season, before dealing with another injury, which will keep him out until next season, a slow start from Power Forward Pau Gasol, who has looked decent since the All-Star break, but not fantastic enough to make a significant difference, endless injuries to players, which has generally kept their roster lacking, even to the point where they had an eight man roster, and have had to deal with their abysmal coach, Mike D'Antoni.

However, they've really set themselves up to succeed within the next 2 seasons. Firstly, with their awful record, they've set themselves up to get into the top 5 in the upcoming draft, and can get someone such as Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker, Dante Exum, Andrew Wiggins, Marcus Smart or Julius Randle. Drafting any of those will be able to build a young core to build around, when Kobe retires in a year or two's time. Then there's this seasons FA, which has Kyle Lowry, Trevor Ariza, Marcin Gortat, Richard Jefferson, Carmelo Anthony, Mike Miller, Nate Robinson, Spencer Hawes, Kirk Hinrich, Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger. With only a couple of players that actually have contracts with the Lakers for next season, they're going to have a lot of cap space. This will allow them to sign a lot of players, to help stack their bench, and give them higher winning chances. Then the season afterwards, Kevin Love is a FA, and has showed interest in playing with the Lakers. If you sign him the season after, you have a solid foundation to build around, and can give you a fantastic offense, and hopefully, an imposing defense too. All together, the Lakers have allowed themselves a chance to really win, and for Kobe to win his sixth ring, unless they draft poorly, and don't manage to sign some good FA's.

Nathan Clover

Raptors making noise

So with Raptors victory over Celtics, thanks to Amir Johnson, they've clinched themselves a Playoff spot, and will be in there for the first time since 07-08 season, when Bosh was still on the team.

Of course their sucsess has come from the guard duo, Kyle Lowry, and DeMar DeRozan. DeMar, being a top 3 Shooting Guard in the NBA right now, was able to succeed because of getting Rudy Gay's shots, making him a 20 PPG guy. As for Lowry, he's been able to get efficient shots and passes, as well being scrapy and fighting for it. Put that together with a towering big man in Valančiūnas, their athletic forward Ross, and a great selection of role players like Patrick Patterson and Steve Novak, and it's a team that can cause some problems. Much like the Suns, they lack Veterans and experience, which can cause them some problems against Miami, Indiana and Chicago, but have the skill to beat then. With 9 games left in the season, they will definitely have a chance to have home court for the first round, but that's the only thing going for them. Overall, they have a chance to excel this post-season, but it's uncertain.

Nathan Clover

Philly making history

So last night the 76ers suffered their 26th loss to the Houston Rockets, losing by 22 points. This loss leaves them tied with the 10-11 Cavaliers, the team after LeBron had left, and before Kyrie had joined, so it's no surprise. But what makes this a bigger joke is that they've lost all of these games, but they're still ahead of the abysmal Milwaukee Bucks. So what does this mean for the Sixers?

Well, if they continue to lose at the rate that they are, they'll end up being the worst team in the league, guaranteeing them a top 5 pick in this draft, even a chance at getting 2 picks in the draft. This means they can have a chance at both Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins, to go along side with the shot blocking machine of Nerlens Noel, and the big Point Michael Carter-Williams, as well as their athletic 4, Thaddeus Young. All together, that is a starting 5 that could really deal some damage in a few years, but they just need to get some better bench players to make it all add together.

Nathan Clover

Can the Suns make noise in the playoffs?

The Phoenix Suns have been the biggest surprise in the league, having a Vegas over/under of 25, and exceeded that drastically, with fantastic coaching by Jeff Hornacek, a solid bench and great guard play with Bledsoe and the borderline All-Star Goran Dragic. They have played great against some really good teams, who've been fabled to be championship calibur, such as the Clippers, the Rockets, and the Thunder. They've built a team that works inside and out, with good defense and valuable bench guys, all brought together with fantastic chemistry. This is why they can be great in the playoffs. Of course like every team they have something that sets them back, and this would be their need of experience and veteran leadership. With Channing Frye being their oldest player, at the age of 30, which is mildly young, they need that leadership to help mold players. And with most of their players on being to the playoffs a few teams, they don't know the intensity of it. So it's uncertain as to how they'd perform in the playoffs, but I think they would perform fairly well. Currently they're tied for eighth seed with Dallas, and are a half game behind Memphis, as well as 1 and a half games behind Golden State. With 10 games left, if they win between 6-8, they might get sixth seed, and face the Clippers (if they stay third seed), and they may beat them in the first round. But, that will have to wait till April.

Nathan Clover