Lakers Draft Day Prospects June 22, 2023

not just that, but there are other slightly undersized scoring guards that will be available and seem clearly better than smith to me. smith was supposed to be a lotto pick, but had some injury that kept him out for a while, i think. watching his highlights, he looks a little like cj mccollum, but you have to remember that mccollum is a rare case--you have to be incredibly skilled to be successful in the nba as a 6'4" skinny sg. again, hawkins has a better track record, is a little bigger, and is a bona fide movement shooter. if i'm taking smith at 17, i'm trading down instead to take hawkins later.

i said wasn't gaga for bufkin, but he's got more of an nba body, imo.

anyway, i can see helping klutch by working guys out or even signing udfas or camp bodies, etc. but using a mid-first with that being a deciding factor would suck. i don't think we'll do that.

btw, if you look at the ringer's mock, they now have jackson, howard, clowney, rupert, nnaji, podziemski, bailey, and cissoko all going very late first/early second. as i mentioned before, charlotte has a few picks in that range; i wonder if they'll be looking to sell at least one of these...

 

Cason Wallace is pretty much the ideal fit net to Reaves. A defensive, catch and shoot point guard. Kind of like in the Pat Bev mold, but younger and much better.

 

i think wallace's floor is like pat bev. his ceiling is more like jrue holiday. i project him to be at least like deanthony melton.

if he's there at 17, we should definitely take him. i can't see that happening, though.

 

I think I'm good with any of these 5

Wallace, Hawkins, Rupert, Lively, Murray.

I like Sheppard a lot as a NBA ready two way kid, but don't think he makes much sense with AR and Max.

If not them, Lakers can sell me on who they think is best 6-7 to 6-8 wing on the board (who's not listed above) : OMP, G.G. Jackson, Jett Howard

Early 2nd (/late 1st bubble), I like: Max Lewis, Brandin Podziemski, Sidy Cissoko, Tristan Vukcevic, Jordan Walsh, Julian Phillips.

If we walk away with at least two of those names, we had a good draft.

 

first post spamming your article?

Welcome.

 

i feel like rupert and murray are going to be available much later than our pick, so if those are targets, you might as well trade down. maybe you pick up an early 2nd to take one or two of your names on the second list.

but my personal list overlaps pretty heavily with yours. i think the problem is that the draft is loaded with good sg prospects where we're drafting (hawkins, lewis, sheppard, smith). this is part of why i really want wallace to slip. he's a pg, and both of ours are UFAs. i like podziemski, too, because i think he can play some pg--at least enough to share the floor with reaves/christie, and he's also a bigger pg.

if we're really into reaves and christie, we should consider trading down and taking OMP, murray, rupert, or jett howard, as they're closer to legit nba sf size.

but if our scouts take a sg, it must mean they think he's really good, so whatever.

 

I would also add Bilal Coulibaly to the list too. He could be our OG Anunoby.

 

Yo. Welcome to Lakers Ball. There is a Kobe Bryant Discussion Thread.. This might be more appropriate & get more discussion there...

 

Probably. But I think there will be a few on each end of the spectrum on draft night where we're saying player x went really early AND surprised that player y is still on the board at 25. With no real consensus in the middle of the first, I think it's going to be all over the place.

Yeah, I'm only taking a SG in the first of they're a high end specialist. Otherwise, I don't think they see the floor. We do have a coach who likes him some 3 guard lineups but so the skills aren't too redundant, they really need to have their own lane... most likely a shooter.

I agree, Wallace solves a lot and regardless of what happens in free agency we're not completely screwed.

Depending on how the night shakes out, I could see us moving up or down. It helps that Rob likes making some kind of move on draft night.

I'm very intrigued, but there's a lot of uncertainty there for me. Also I don't think it matters because I think that train has left the station. I think the latest he's on the board is 13. He fits the m.o. for both OKC at 12 and the Raptors at 13.

 

The more I look at him I don't believe he will be there but I'm hoping Lively does somehow drop to us. He fills a lot of needs for us. Good news is we are getting a good player no matter what it seems.

 

just to have it in one place, right now, most sites have the top 9 fairly set, not necessarily in this full order, but these guys:

wemby
miller
scoot
thompson twins
hendricks
walker
whitmore
black

after that, the names i see most are:

coulibaly, d***, keyonte george, wallace, and lively.

if any of those drop to 17, we should jump on them.

hawkins, hood-schafino, bufkin, howard, and smith are often in the next mix.

at least one of the names above will definitely be there at 17, as will my man kris murray.

jsm's right--someone's going to reach, and someone's going to drop. will be interesting to see who. i hope it's wallace, but i doubt it.

 

If we keep both picks... & emoni bates is still available at 47 I'm taking him. We're not going to have 2 rotational rookies anyways. Bates will definitely be something for the years to come....imo

 

you think so? i didn't like him on film, his measurements aren't good (skinny and not long), and he really underperformed the hype. if i'm taking a chance on a highly rated prospect who kind of busted in college, i'd go with gg jackson over bates.

 

Already battling gun charges, hard no. His performance in Memphis didn't do him any favors. Had to go to a smaller EMU to perform and I'd argue even then, he didn't live up to the hype he had coming out of HS.

 

I can understand & respect that POV from you & abeer3.... btw big fan of your yt videos.

 

It's odd how few first rounders we've brought in for a draft that's in 2 weeks.

 

17. Jalen Hood-Schifino

 

yeah, makes me a little nervous.

and is that john shumate's son?

i may need to look up more on him, as he's a guy who could fall to us after being projected higher for a while. think the the comp was deron williams, but i didn't see that in the tape.

 

He doesn't come from that much pedigree. His dad is JR Shumate. Has coached girls HS basketball for 14 years (coaches his daughter) and he played at some level.

My read on the limited 1st round workouts...
A)we're going to have a run of 1st round guys next week. Last chance since guys will be doing second workouts end of next week and going into draft week.
B) we know who we like, maybe it's someone we even didn't bring in. Our scouts know their s***.
C) it's a Klutch kid.
D) pick is being moved.

Yeah, I don't see that either unless they're comparing guys who aren't NBA level athletes who still can still carve a top end path.

Ringer had a Dinwiddie comp and I think that's much closer than D-Will.

 

Ham called in for this one.