Coby Karl, Joe Crawford Impressive in Summer League Play for the LA Lakers

About to start his second season in the NBA, Coby Karl shows why the Lakers signed the Boise State guard to a contract last year and why Karl became an instant crowd favorite.

He has hit double figures in every game he has played in this year’s Summer League and that’s coming off a 17.5 PPG average in 17 games with the D-League Los Angeles Defenders this past season.

A three-point specialist at Boise State, Karl had a .411 3PPG average with the Defenders. Last night, Karl was again the team’s high scorer with 18 points and he went 3-for-7 from beyond the arc.

This years' only draft choice, the #58 pick, Joe Crawford, another guard out of Kentucky, had 16 points.

Mitch Kupchak has been pretty fortunate with second round draft picks over the years. He has gotten Rony Turiaf, who has played three seasons for the Lakers and has just been offered a $17-million contract by the Warriors.

He also drafted Marc Gasol late. Gasol was the Spanish League’s MVP this past season and his draft rights were part of the deal with Memphis that brought his brother, Pau Gasol, to the Lakers. Many think Marc Gasol will be the starting center for the Grizzlies and has a shot at making the NBA’s All-Rookie team.

Kupchak also got the draft rights to China’s Sun Yue, a 6-9 point guard with good hands and very athletic for his size. Whether or not Kupchak is able to sign Yue is still the lingering question.

Nevertheless, the emergence of Karl and Crawford definitely clouds Sasha Vujacic’s future with the Lakers. As of this writing, the restricted free agent has not signed any offer sheets from other teams.

If the Lakers do retain Vujacic, he could very well become an integral part of any trade talks. If the shooting guard does sign an offer sheet, I don’t expect the Lakers to match.

At this point in his career, I would have to say that Coby Karl is ahead of where Vujacic was when he began his second season with the club.