Los Angeles Lakers: Three expectations to avoid having in 2019

3. The Los Angeles Lakers will finish as a top-four seed

I think it is safe to say that most of the fanbase understands how talented the league is, and in particular, the Western Conference, and knows that the chances of the Lakers being this dominant first-place team are slim.

More from LA Sports Hub

• Lakers: 5 Players to Target Through Trades to make another championship run
• LA Chargers: Week 8 against Denver Broncos is a must-win
• LA Rams: Jared Goff wants to keep the Los Angeles title streak going
• Lakers Rumors: Los Angeles Clippers interested in Rajon Rondo
• LA Chargers: Justin Herbert wins AFC Rookie of the Month

There certainly is a chance that the Lakers finish as the best team in the West but the talent at the top is so level that there is no way that any team simply runs away with the entire conference halfway into the season.

However, those reasonable expectations are stopped somewhere around the fourth-seed. If we were to poll unsuspecting Laker fans, I guarantee that three-fourths would say that the Lakers will be one of the top-four seeds in the Western Conference.

Are they good enough to be one? Absolutely. But as is the trend with the rest of this article: the worst possible thing to do is to expect it as it easily can go the other way as well.

There are so many great teams in the West and I think there is a core seven that are playoff locks: Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trailblazers, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and Golden State Warriors

Of those seven, it is very easy to see a top-four form without the Lakers. The Clippers, Nuggets and Jazz all feel like locks fro the top four. Portland can certainly get hot at the right time and climb up the standings and the Houston Rockets can surprise everyone and actually gel together.

There is a very conceivable path in which the Lakers finish as the fifth, sixth or even seventh seed in the Western Conference. Again, don’t expect anything higher than four as it is far from a given and will lead to disappointment.