Every year, just prior to the start of a new NBA season, ESPN polls a number of people across the league on a number of topics, including who will win certain honors.
This year, 15 scouts, executives and coaches were asked who would win the MVP award, who had the best offseason, how good incoming rookie Victor Wembanyama will be in five years and so on.
Buy Lakers TicketsOf course, the big topic they were surveyed on is who will win both conferences and ultimately the NBA championship.
As far as winning the West, 10 said the Denver Nuggets, the defending world champs, would do so, three said the Phoenix Suns and two went with the Golden State Warriors. The Boston Celtics got the most votes as far as winning the whole thing with six, Denver got five votes and the Suns and Milwaukee Bucks each got two.
That’s right — the new and improved Los Angeles Lakers got zero votes to even reach the NBA Finals.
To its credit, ESPN did note that this particular part of the poll has turned out to be very wrong in the past.
Via ESPN:
“Ahead of the 2019-20 season, neither the Heat nor the Lakers received a vote to win their conference, let alone the title. The Clippers and Bucks were runaway choices. Both lost in the second round.”
This should serve as additional motivation for the Lakers, who remade their roster in the middle of last season and got to the Western Conference Finals, to win ring No. 18 in June.
