Los Angeles Lakers: Despite what you think, winning now hurts the team

The Los Angeles Lakers have been giving fans something to cheer about the end the season with wins that actually hurt the team, despite how you feel.

When it became clear that the Los Angeles Lakers were not going to make the postseason every Laker fan grew extremely frustrated and disappointed with the team.

The expectations were high for the team after signing LeBron James in the offseason. At the time, the Lakers were riding a five-year postseason drought that was so unlike everything the franchise had experienced prior.

It would be hard to blame any Laker fan that checked out and stopped caring about the team once the playoffs were out of the picture. With a crowded bottom of the league, however, the script flipped and fans should have been rooting for losses.

The Lakers legitimately could have moved as high as the seventh pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, which not only would give them a higher pick but a much higher chance of landing a top-four selection.

The Lakers are currently in line for the 11th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft and can move to the 10th spot if the team loses its last game and the Orlando Magic win out.

Los Angeles has won two games in a row and has won six of its last 10. This has provided a lot of excitement for Laker fans, despite the team primarily being the G League South Bay Lakers.

You would think that Staples Center would be nearly empty and there wouldn’t be much care. However, fans have legitimately enjoyed this group of guys winning as they are showing a ton of effort and are playing loose and fun.

That is definitely different from this season and is actually an entertaining style of basketball. However, that does not mean that it is what is best for the team.

The narrative for rooting for this team, aside from the excitement, is that it is showing the front office that all the fans want is a group of guys that will put in the effort and show that they want to win at all costs.

It also is providing some of these guys some very valuable experience, which could lead to a few of the G League stars joining the roster next season. That does have value.

However, what has extremely more value is the Lakers having a top-seven pick with a much higher chance of a top-four pick.

While the Lakers do not need another rookie in the lottery, the team could have used a higher pick in so many ways to instantly help the team now and help the team much more than Alex Caruso will.

The 11th-overall pick is not that intriguing and is not going to do much aside from being something the team can throw in alongside the entire young core for Anthony Davis, which in upon itself might not be a smart move.

And even if some of these players make the roster next season, they likely will not get a ton of playing time and are just going to fall behind the players the team brings in this summer.

So while it has been fun to watch, just remember that unlike the rest of the year, the Los Angeles Lakers should have actually been aiming to lose the last few weeks, and they yet again failed.