The Lakers Are in Full Tank Mode

The Los Angeles Lakers were a nice surprise in the season’s early going.

Through 15 November, the Lake Show -- or what's left of it -- was a whole two games over .500 at 7-5.

That doesn’t sound very impressive when you have a Warriors team that was conceivably chasing the NBA wins record for a second time.

But remember these figures: 27, 21, and 17.

Is that Kobe’s PPG his final 3 seasons?

Nope, it's the number of wins the Lakers have posted the past three seasons.

Unfortunately, the Luke Walton Lakers' early season dreams were short lived, as the team awoke to the realities of a season’s worth of sample size. Since that point in November, the Lakers have gone 13-46.

Their latest stretch is 1-14, which dates back to 14 February.

At 20-51, the Lakers sit at the bottom of the Western Conference. The only thing keeping them from being the NBA's worst is the draft pick-free Brooklyn Nets.

That’s not great, Bob.

But, as many an NBA fan knows, a bad record can be a good thing for a rebuilding team, assuming that's the case as opposed to mere incompetence. However, as the aforementioned Brooklyn Nets know, it’s not a good thing to be bad when you don’t have your pick.

And the Lakers may be in danger of being in that same situation.

Remember that ill-fated Steve Nash trade?

In return for the corpse of a former two-time MVP, the Lakers agreed to trade a number of picks; included among them was a protected 2015 first-rounder. Before the Suns could use it, they traded the package to the then Sam Hinkie 76ers in a three-team deal.

Why does a 2015 pick matter?

Well, it rolled over in 2015 because it was Top 5 protected, and the Lakers were Top 5 bad. In 2016, it was Top 3 protected, and the Lakers were even worse.

For the upcoming 2017 draft, the pick still has a Top 3 protection, ie- the Lakers have every reason to suck for the rest of the season.

In order to make sure that the 76ers don’t swipe their high pick, the Lakers have opted to bench their big off-season acquisitions in Lou Deng and Timofey Mozgov for the remainder of the season. These  vets cost $136million this past summer, but neither has really contributed much this season.

The benching isn’t much a change for Deng, who's yet to play in a game since late February. Mozgov’s only set foot on the court once since the All-Star festivities.

Besides Deng and Mozgov, the Lakers traded the possible Sixth Man of the Year -- Lou Williams -- in order to secure their spot as an NBA doormat.

While the Lakers' hopes of keeping their pick still depend on the roll of ping pong balls, getting rid of solid veteran players will help raise their chances.

Somewhere out there, Hinkie is smiling, if only for that fact that a tanking team will make the 76ers regret firing him.