EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—The journey toward selecting the next Laker has entered its final week, and the high-profile predraft workouts are finished.If someone has proved to be a must-have guy, the Lakers are keeping that quiet.
And if no one has proved to be a must-have guy, presuming the Boston Celtics at No. 6 especially won’t let injured Joel Embiid drop to the Lakers at No. 7, then the Lakers will sit back to see who does drop to them or perhaps move down a few slots if the right trade opportunity comes along.
Even though the Lakers had Marcus Smart, Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton in for second workouts Friday, Julius Randle’s solo workout Tuesday still lingers in minds as extremely impressive.Aside from Randle’s evident production on the court during Kentucky’s maximum-length NCAA season, Randle showed more face-up skills and distance shooting to the Lakers. On the workouts alone, even though Gordon offered a much stronger impression Friday than he did two weeks earlier, Randle has the edge over fellow power forwards Noah Vonleh and Gordon.The Lakers have now had firsthand looks in their gym at a variety of options who could be there at No. 7: forwards Vonleh, Randle, Gordon and Doug McDermott and guards Smart, Payton, Nik Stauskas, Zach LaVine, Gary Harris, Tyler Ennis, James Young and P.J. Hairston.The Lakers will take another look at UCLA uber-athlete LaVine on Saturday and work out Connecticut point guard Shabazz Napier on Sunday. Both will be group gatherings closed to the media but won’t be the star-studded productions the Lakers had on previous days.The workouts of the guys expected to go in the top seven are over. The final deliberations are beginning.There is apparent value at No. 7 in Smart, projected No. 2 in the draft a year ago before he returned to Oklahoma State, as many teams still have yet to conclude Dante Exum is a better point guard prospect.
Smart would seem to be a duplication of Kobe Bryant in some senses with how much Smart dominates the ball on the perimeter. But aside from planning to play only two more years, Bryant doesn’t want to handle the ball anymore, and he’s going to play in the post a lot more than most big men in the NBA.
Newsletter
My Cart
You have no items in your shopping cart.
Compare Products
You have no items to compare.
Community Poll
Jordan Retro 3
5 Item(s)
per page
Grid List
No comments:
Post a Comment