The Los Angeles Lakers will always lay claim to having the most loyal fan base, whatever their standing.
Despite their recent failures, the club is always the biggest draw. Lakers ticket prices even at Staples are significantly higher than their cross-town counterparts, the LA Clippers. The Clippers are considered as fringe contenders and are currently 4th place in the Western Conference, while the Lakers are at the bottom of the heap.
Much of the ticket price spike is credited to Kobe Bryant's retirement tour, but even in other years, the Lakers have always commanded higher prices.
It's no surprise, and no secret that Ben Simmons, next year's projected first overall pick wants to play for the Lakers, but this is not like choosing college-he needs to enter the NBA Draft. The feeling is mutual, and the Lakers seem to be doing all it can to bring the Aussie phenomenon to Hollywood.
ESPN NBA's resident draft guru Chad Ford has named Simmons as the top overall pick and also named the Lakers, what he called "the NBA's most popular team" and their fans are already reminiscing "a young Magic (Johnson)." It would also be a great marketing tool to have Simmons reunite with high school teammate D'Angelo Russell.
So if the lottery balls finally reward the Purple and Gold, will Ben Simmons definitely be picked no.1? Not necessarily. There are more and more arguments about picking the next heralded prospect, Duke Blue Devil Brandon Ingram.
Ingram also plays forward and he uses his 7'3" wingspan to good use. Perhaps he does not have the overall skills and versatility that Simmons displayed but he has a better shooting touch.
According to sports site LA Sports Hub, Ingram would be a better fit than Simmons, despite all the hype about Simmons. In their analysis, it was not about who would be the no.1 pick, but about who the Lakers should pick if they had that choice (but to have Simmons and Ingram on the board-you'd have to be no.1).
"Ingram has so much skill offensively - he shoots 39 percent from three and once he gets hot, water doesn't cool him off," LA Sports Hub's Damon Taylor noted.
The knock on Simmons is that he plays the "four" position and the Lakers already have Julius Randle and Larry Nance, Jr, not too mention Brandon Bass whom they did not trade at the deadline.
The clear need is the "three" and Ingram has the scoring ability as well as the length to give opposing small forwards a hard time, similar to Kevin Durant.
Nevertheless, Lakers fans are already welcoming the next possible star who's been wearing purple and gold in his basketball career already. Check out this fan made video.