Lakers 2018-2019 Record: How Many Games Will LeBron James Win In Los Angeles Next Season?

The Los Angeles Lakers should be much improved in the 2018-2019 NBA season after signing the league’s best player, but exactly how much better the team will be is up for debate. With LeBron James and a host of other veterans joining the roster, L.A. has been given an over/under win total of 48.5 at the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook.

Los Angeles finished 11th in the West with a 35-47 record last year and out of the playoffs for the fifth straight year. The Lakers haven’t had a winning season since 2012-2013, and they last won more than 48 games in 2011.

If the Lakers finish below their projected win total, it’ll be an unfamiliar feeling for James. The three-time champion hasn’t won fewer than 50 games at any point during the last decade, aside from the lockout-shortened 2011-2012 season when the Miami Heat went 46-20. Even as the Cleveland Cavaliers struggled this past year, James played all 82 games and willed the Cavs to a 50-32 record.

James dominated the Eastern Conference over the last eight years, making the NBA Finals each year with either the Heat or Cavs. His teams have a .699 winning percentage for an average record of 57-25 over the last 10 years.

Things will be more difficult in the Western Conference, where 10 teams had winning records in 2017-2018. The Denver Nuggets missed the 2018 playoffs with 46 wins, which would’ve been good for the No.6 seed in the East.

The Lakers will face the defending champion Golden State Warriors four times next season. James will have more meetings than usual with the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder, who are both projected to win more than 50 games.

Miami saw an 11-win improvement in 2010-2011 when James and Chris Bosh joined the Heat. The Cavs went 53-29 after they added James and Kevin Love in 2014-2015, winning 20 more games than they had the previous season.

Unlike his last two forays into free agency, James won’t be joining his new team with another star player. Free-agent additions Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Michael Beasley have never been All-Stars, and Rajon Rondo hasn’t been an All-Star in five years.

“We just got guys that love to play basketball,” James told ESPN's Rachel Nichols last week at the opening of his I Promise School. “At the end of the day, guys that love to play ball, and that's what they do every single day, I love that. I love that, and I think [Rob] Pelinka and Magic [Johnson] love that as well, and that's why they made the signings. And bringing Lance and JaVale and Beas and Rondo, they're guys that every day that they wake up, they think about the game of basketball. And everything else is secondary.”

The Lakers’ record has been steadily improving over the last few years. Since recording the worst season in franchise history in which L.A. went an abysmal 17-65 in 2015-2016, Los Angeles has posted a nine-win improvement in consecutive years.

Los Angeles refused to trade No.2 overall pick Brandon Ingram in a deal for Kawhi Leonard this offseason, and the budding star could take a major step forward in his third NBA season. Lonzo Ball averaged 10.2 points, 6.9 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game as a rookie, and Kyle Kuzma is coming off an All-Rookie campaign.

“I don't feel like this is even a rebuilding year for us. We have an opportunity to do something that a lot of people don't think we can do, and we love the notion of it's another rebuilding year and we don't have enough. So that will motivate the guys that we have anyways,” James told Nichols.

“What my expectations are for the team, we don't have any right now. But we're definitely going to be better than we were the previous year. I think there's going to be months where we're really good, there's going to be months where we're not so good, and that's just to come from familiarity.”

James is arguably coming off the best offensive season of his career. He averaged 34.0 points, 9.1 rebounds and 9.0 assists in 22 playoff games while shooting 53.9 percent from the field.

After missing a career-high 13 games in 2014-2015, James played in 232 of a possible 246 regular-season games over the last three seasons. He’s averaged 77 games played in his 15 regular seasons.