Projections for the Los Angeles Lakers vary wildly across the board. Some expect them to compete for a championship during their first season with LeBron James. Others expect them to miss the playoffs. But rarely are explanations or methodologies offered. They should be, though, because this is an extremely confusing team. It depends on a variety of pieces fitting together in unforeseen ways. It relies on growth from players young and old. It is an unidentifiable product, and has a long way to go before it can even be called unfinished.

So in the interest of justify a prediction for this roster, we are going to go through every single game on their schedule and make a prediction. Those predictions will be based on talent on the rosters, where the games are played, scheduling conditions, the motivations of the players involved and any other relevant factors that go into predicting single games. That will allow us to set a prediction for the season with all of the work shown.

There is simply no way that all 82 individual predictions pan out. The Lakers are going to win games they should lose and lose games they should win, as all NBA teams do. Predicting injuries is impossible and irresponsible. This team could make a blockbuster trade. But assuming typical levels of health in the NBA, no extreme roster or coaching changes and no overwhelming off-court surprises, this is more or less what the Lakers are going to be. They get off to a rocky start, but all in all, Lakers fans should be quite pleased with these predictions.