2017–18 Los Angeles Lakers season

2017–18 Los Angeles Lakers season
Head coach	Luke Walton
General manager	Rob Pelinka
Owner(s)	Jerry Buss family trust (primary owner being Jeanie Buss as of March 27, 2017)
Arena	Staples Center
Results
Record	35–47 (.427)
Place	Division: 3rd (Pacific) Conference: 11th (Western)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Local media
Television	Spectrum SportsNet and Spectrum Deportes
Radio	710 ESPN (English) 1020 Radio AM (Spanish)

The 2017–18 Los Angeles Lakers season was the franchise's 70th season, its 69th season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and its 58th in Los Angeles.

On December 18, 2017 against the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers retired the numbers 8 and 24 of former shooting guard Kobe Bryant, making him the first NBA player to have two numbers retired on the same team.

Draft

Main article: 2017 NBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	2	Lonzo Ball	PG	United States	UCLA
1	27	Kyle Kuzma	SF	United States	Utah
1	30	Josh Hart	SG	United States	Villanova
2	42	Thomas Bryant	PF/C	United States	Indiana

Originally, the Lakers were at risk of losing their own first round pick this year to the Philadelphia 76ers due to the stipulations of a previous trade involving Steve Nash and the Phoenix Suns and having less than 50% odds of keeping the pick despite having the third-worst record that season. However, they not only kept the pick, but also moved up a spot in the process. The Lakers will ultimately lose their first round pick for the 2018 NBA draft, regardless of whether it goes to the 76ers or the Boston Celtics later on, but they will at least keep their first round pick for the 2019 NBA draft as opposed to giving it to the Orlando Magic as a result of their Dwight Howard trade around the same period. Their original second first round pick at #28, however, came from the Houston Rockets as an incentive to trade away Lou Williams in exchange for Corey Brewer. On June 20, two days before the draft began, the Lakers would acquire a new first round pick by getting the worst of the Brooklyn Nets' first round picks at #27 alongside their star center Brook Lopez in a trade in exchange for star combo guard D'Angelo Russell and Russian center Timofey Mozgov. On draft night, though, the Lakers acquired two more picks in the draft by trading their weakest first round pick (which became power forward/center Tony Bradley from the most recent NCAA Champions in North Carolina University) to the Utah Jazz for Picks #30 & 42 in this year's draft.

With the 2nd pick of the draft, the Lakers selected their hometown star Lonzo Ball, who played point guard during his sole season at UCLA. During that time there, Lonzo averaged a league-leading 7.6 assists to go with 14.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game in 36 total games there. He also earned the Wayman Tisdale Award, the Pac-12 Freshman of The Year Award, First Team All-Pac-12 Honors, and consensus First-Team All-American Honors in the process. Next up, with the pick they acquired from the Brooklyn Nets, the Lakers took power forward Kyle Kuzma from the University of Utah. In Kuzma's final year at Utah, he joined Ball in being a member of the All-Pac-12 First Team by averaging 16.4 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 2.4 assists as a junior. With their last pick in the first round of the draft, the Lakers selected senior shooting guard Josh Hart from Villanova University. Throughout his time there (which included an NCAA Championship in his junior season), Hart averaged 13.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game at Villanova while earning plenty of awards in each of his last three seasons there. The Lakers ended their draft night by taking sophomore power forward/center Thomas Bryant from Indiana University. In his time at Indiana, Bryant averaged 12.2 points, 6.2 rebounds, 1.2 blocks, and nearly an assist per game throughout his college career. He made the Big 10 Conference's Freshman Team and the All-Big 10 Third Team Honors in his first season there.

Roster

2017–18 Los Angeles Lakers roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY–MM–DD) From G 2 Ball, Lonzo 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1997–10–27 UCLA C 31 Bryant, Thomas 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 248 lb (112 kg) 1997–07–31 Indiana G 1 Caldwell-Pope, Kentavious 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 205 lb (93 kg) 1993–02–18 Georgia G 4 Caruso, Alex (TW) 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 186 lb (84 kg) 1994–02–28 Texas A&M F 9 Deng, Luol 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1985–04–16 Duke G 10 Ennis, Tyler 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 194 lb (88 kg) 1994–08–24 Syracuse F 12 Frye, Channing 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 255 lb (116 kg) 1983–05–17 Arizona G 5 Hart, Josh 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 215 lb (98 kg) 1995–03–06 Villanova G 20 Ingram, Andre 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1985–11–19 American G/F 14 Ingram, Brandon (C) 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1997–09–02 Duke F 0 Kuzma, Kyle 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 220 lb (100 kg) 1995–07–24 Utah C 11 Lopez, Brook 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 268 lb (122 kg) 1988–04–01 Stanford G 23 Payton, Gary (TW) 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) 1992–12–01 Oregon State F/C 30 Randle, Julius 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 1994–11–29 Kentucky G 3 Thomas, Isaiah  5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 185 lb (84 kg) 1989–02–07 Washington F 21 Wear, Travis 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 225 lb (102 kg) 1990–09–21 UCLA C 40 Zubac, Ivica 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) 240 lb (109 kg) 1997–03–18 Croatia	Head coach Luke Walton Assistant coach(es) Jud Buechler Mark Madsen Jesse Mermuys Miles Simon Brian Shaw (Associate HC) Brian Keefe (assistant coach/player development) Clay Moser (assistant coach/basketball strategy) Tracy Murray (assistant coach/shooting consultant) Casey Owens (assistant coach/advance professional scout) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended (GL) On assignment to G League affiliate (TW) Two-way affiliate player Injured Roster • Transactions Last transaction: 2018–04–05

Standings

Division

Pacific Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Div	GP
y – Golden State Warriors	58	24	.707	0.0	29–12	29–12	13–3	82
Los Angeles Clippers	42	40	.512	16.0	22–19	20–21	12–4	82
Los Angeles Lakers	35	47	.427	23.0	20–21	15–26	6–10	82
Sacramento Kings	27	55	.329	31.0	14–27	13–28	5–11	82
Phoenix Suns	21	61	.256	37.0	10–31	11–30	4–12	82

Conference

Western Conference
#	Team	W	L	PCT	GB	GP
1	z – Houston Rockets *	65	17	.793	–	82
2	y – Golden State Warriors *	58	24	.707	7.0	82
3	y – Portland Trail Blazers *	49	33	.598	16.0	82
4	x – Oklahoma City Thunder	48	34	.585	17.0	82
5	x – Utah Jazz	48	34	.585	17.0	82
6	x – New Orleans Pelicans	48	34	.585	17.0	82
7	x – San Antonio Spurs	47	35	.573	18.0	82
8	x – Minnesota Timberwolves	47	35	.573	18.0	82
9	Denver Nuggets	46	36	.561	19.0	82
10	Los Angeles Clippers	42	40	.512	23.0	82
11	Los Angeles Lakers	35	47	.427	30.0	82
12	Sacramento Kings	27	55	.329	38.0	82
13	Dallas Mavericks	24	58	.293	41.0	82
14	Memphis Grizzlies	22	60	.268	43.0	82
15	Phoenix Suns	21	61	.256	44.0	82

Game log

Preseason

2017 pre-season game log
Pre-season: 2–4 (Home: 1–2; Road: 1–2) Game Date Time Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location Attendance Record 1 September 30 Minnesota L 99–108 Kyle Kuzma (19) Larry Nance Jr. (9) Ball, Ennis (8) Honda Center 18,000 0–1 2 October 2 Denver L 107–113 Kyle Kuzma (23) Julius Randle (10) four players (4) Staples Center 17,218 0–2 3 October 4 Denver L 104–122 Jordan Clarkson (24) Julius Randle (6) Briante Weber (5) Citizens Business Bank Arena 17,000 0–3 4 October 8 Sacramento W 75–69 Julius Randle (17) Julius Randle (10) Alex Caruso (5) T-Mobile Arena 13,094 1–3 5 October 10 Utah L 99–105 Clarkson, Kuzma (18) Alex Caruso (6) Alex Caruso (10) Staples Center 15,054 1–4 6 October 13 @ LA Clippers W 111–104 Brook Lopez (16) Nance Jr., Randle (7) Ingram, Kuzma, Caldwell-Pope (5) Staples Center 16,711 2–4
2017–18 season schedule

Transactions

Main article: List of 2017–18 NBA season transactions

Trades

June 22, 2017	To Los Angeles Lakers Brook Lopez Draft rights to Kyle Kuzma	To Brooklyn Nets D'Angelo Russell Timofey Mozgov
June 22, 2017	To Los Angeles Lakers Draft rights to Josh Hart Draft rights to Thomas Bryant	To Utah Jazz Draft rights to Tony Bradley
February 8, 2018	To Los Angeles Lakers Protected 1st round draft pick 2018 NBA Draft Isaiah Thomas Channing Frye	To Cleveland Cavaliers Jordan Clarkson Larry Nance Jr.

Free agency

Re-signed

Player	Signed
Tyler Ennis	2-year contract worth $3.1 million

Additions

Player	Signed	Former Team
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope	1-year contract worth $18 million	Detroit Pistons
Alex Caruso	Two-way contract	Oklahoma City Blue
Vander Blue	Two-way contract	Los Angeles D-Fenders
Andrew Bogut	1-year contract worth $2.3 million	Cleveland Cavaliers
Gary Payton II	Two-way contract	Milwaukee Bucks / Wisconsin Herd
Nigel Hayes	10-day contract	Westchester Knicks
Andre Ingram	10-day contract	South Bay Lakers

Subtractions

Player	Reason left	New Team
Tarik Black	Waived	Houston Rockets
Nick Young	1-year contract worth $5.2 million	Golden State Warriors
David Nwaba	Waived	Chicago Bulls
Metta World Peace	Unrestricted free agent	New Orleans Gators / Retired
Thomas Robinson	Unrestricted free agent	BC Khimki
Andrew Bogut	Waived
Vander Blue	Waived	Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino
Nigel Hayes	10-day contract expired	Westchester Knicks