Lakers News: Where LA Lands On ESPN's Post-Free Agency Power Rankings

Does ESPN think the Lakers can hang banner No. 18 in 2024?

After a miserable 2-10 start to the season and a generally rocky first half of the year thanks to the awkward fits of Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, your Los Angeles Lakers righted the ship in a major way with some big trades prior to the February 9th deadline. The team finished with a 19-8 post-deadline run, a 43-39 overall record and the seventh seed, and eventually a sprint to the Western Conference Finals.

Not bad for a club that looked so lost early on.

Dave McMenamin of ESPN notes that Los Angeles, which boasts +1200 title odds heading into the 2023-24 season, is hoping continuity in the form of significant year-to-year roster carryover, plus some tactical new additions will help bring it back to the promised land.

"After being swept in the conference finals, the Lakers are betting on last year's core -- plus solid if not splashy additions in Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Jaxson Hayes and Cam Reddish -- to take the team to the next level," McMenamin writes.

ESPN's fresh power rankings, which appraise all 30 NBA clubs, pegs a post-free agency Los Angeles as being the seventh-best team in the league. That seventh-place standing puts the Lakers behind just two West teams, the reigning champion Denver Nuggets (who let two key bench role players walk in Bruce Brown Jeff Green) and the star-studded, injury-prone Phoenix Suns, and just one slot above the Golden State Warriors, who after all won the whole shebang in 2022.

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