NBA Rumors Lakers 2016: ESPN Predicts Lakers To Be The Worst Team; Who Will Be The New Leader? Luke Walton Suggests D'Angelo Russell And Julius Randle

The Los Angeles Lakers is one of the teams with the most records of championships in the NBA history. However, at the time, Lakers' roster is comprised of young players and ESPN predicted that they will be the worst team in the Western Conference

LA Lakers The Worst Team In Western Conference

According to Silver Screen and Roll, ESPN predicted that Kobe Bryant's team, the Los Angeles Lakers will be the third-worst record in the league and the worst in the Western Conference.

Everyone knows that Kobe Bryant, who deliver Lakers a number of championships has already retired and the fate of the team is left to younger players. In fact, the team is reaching out to free agency to sign skilled veterans like Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov.

ESPN's forecast West standing featured the Lakers on the bottom with a record of 25-57. However, this is still better than their previous records in the last two seasons with 21 and 17 wins, respectively.

"The expectations, to me, aren't going to be wins and losses, right now at least. The expectations are going to be the way we play," said Luke Walton on his podcast appearance on Monday. "It's about having an edge when you play, it's about competing every single time on offense and defense, it's about playing the right way."

D'Angelo Russell And Julius Randle To Lead Lakers

Per Lakers Nation, the majority of the talents in Los Angeles Lakers are too young to compete for the veteran players on the court. Only D'Angelo Russell, Julius Randal and Brandon Ingram are outside of a few veterans, the rest of the Lakers' players are 21 years old and younger.

Now, Lakers' fans are wondering who will lead the team? Kobe Bryant's retirement is a huge loss to the team and someone has to take the leadership to encourage and strengthen the team. Well, it looks like Walton has already found two.

"In summer league I spent the majority of my time with the young guys here, and D'Angelo has been phenomenal as far as being vocal in practice, and doing what we ask him as a coaching staff, and coming in early and after practice and getting work in," Walton said. "So right now he's shown that he's capable of being a leader and that he's working on becoming a leader."

Luke Walter added that Julius Randle has the same leadership ability too. However, he only had a limited time with Randle but he is hoping that the two (Randle and Russell) would step up to take the leadership role as they bring few veteran to join Lakers.

Do you agree that Lakers will be the worst team? Do you agree that Julius Randle and D'Angelo Russell will make good leaders for their team? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.