7 Intriguing 2017 NBA Draft Prospects for Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are steaming toward the 2017 NBA draft, holding down last place in the West and helping their lottery odds by losing 10 of their last 11 games.
The Purple and Gold have a better than 50-50 chance of keeping their top-three-protected pick. This is the one they swapped to the Phoenix Suns for Steve Nash back in 2012.
The Suns eventually gave that same pick to the Philadelphia 76ers, but L.A. has hung on to it year-by-year, tanking their way to a youth-driven rebuild with the likes of Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram.
The recent trade of Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets further bolstered the draft picture—L.A. received veteran Corey Brewer and a first-round selection that's currently projected at No. 28 by DraftExpress.
With the way the new collective bargaining agreement is structured, teams are now better positioned to groom and hang on to players over time, with longer contracts and more money than opposing teams can offer.
The importance of the draft looms even larger for the Lakers given the inflated contracts they gifted Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov last summer—two veterans who clearly don't hold the keys for L.A.'s eventual return to prominence.
According to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, the team has effectively shut down those two players for the rest of the season in order to further develop their young prospects.
This will be the first time on the clock for Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka as the team's new president and general manager, respectively.
Caleb Swanigan, C/PF, Purdue
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Big Ten Player of the Year Caleb Swanigan is a glass-gobbling monster, averaging 12.6 boards per game.
The 6'9" 250-pounder from Purdue is also all about overcoming adversity, whether battling back from obesity (360 pounds by eighth grade) or dealing with life led on the margins of homelessness.
As ESPN's Myron Medcalf wrote in January:
"Throughout his youth, he floated between unstable housing situations and homeless shelters, back and forth between Indianapolis and Utah, as his mother, Tanya, tried to stabilize her life with six children, all while his father, Carl Swanigan Sr., wrestled with a crack-cocaine addiction.
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Swanigan is a relentless wrecking ball of motion on the floor and is also no slouch when it comes to scoring. He's averaging 18.5 points per game, including a solid three-point percentage of 43.1 during the regular season.
Those long balls are no fluke. The sophomore launched 72 heat-seeking missiles during the same period, nailing 31 of them. Yet despite all this, he's still viewed as a bubble first-rounder.
Swanigan would be another undersized big man on a Lakers roster crowded with them (Randle, Larry Nance Jr. and Tarik Black being the prime exhibits). The 19-year-old also isn't particularly quick or explosive, but his 7'3 ½" wingspan could help assuage some concerns.
And don't forget his jump-shooting, something L.A. could use more of in the frontcourt.
Luke Kennard, SG, Duke
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The Lakers lost their leading scorer when they traded Williams to Houston, but the draft pick they received back in the package could help plug that hole. Enter Duke's Larry Kennard, a shooting guard who epitomizes buckets and brings other qualities to the table as well.
The 6'5" sophomore netted 20.2 points per game during the regular season. He also chipped in a respectable 5.3 boards and 2.3 dimes.
It's possible that the left-handed gunner will never pan out to be anything more than a one-trick pony in the NBA, given that he's not particularly athletic and has suspect defensive skills.
But Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is on board with his sophomore guard's all-around talent.
"Luke's been terrific," he said recently, per the team's Twitter account. "He's been one of the best players in the country. He's been consistently excellent. That's the biggest compliment I can give him."
The Lakers could lose another volume scorer during the offseason, as comeback kid Nick "Swaggy P" Young holds a player's option on his contract and could opt out in search of a bigger deal. Drafting Kennard late in the first round wouldn't be a huge gamble for Los Angeles.
Who knows, maybe Lakers fans will get to chant "Luuuuuke" again, just as they once did for Luke Walton.
T.J. Leaf, PF, UCLA
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UCLA's T.J. Leaf is a bit of a wild card—he could skyrocket up the board on draft night and could just as easily be a late first-rounder. Regardless, the lanky power forward has attributes that could fit well with head coach Luke Walton's system.
The 19-year-old was born in Israel and raised in the U.S., and he has emerged from near-obscurity during his freshman season. He's still not in the same star orbit as his teammate Lonzo Ball, but Leaf's regular-season stats speak volumes: 16.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.6 dimes and 1.2 blocks in 30.2 minutes per game.
At 6'10" and 225 pounds, Leaf is highly mobile, sees the court well and has good passing skills. Showing a greater willingness to shoot from deep would maximize his worth once in the NBA. But the mechanics seem to be there—he's connecting on 45.3 percent from beyond the arc, albeit on a somewhat modest 1.7 attempts per game.
There's no guarantee Leaf will select the one-and-done option, but momentum matters and he seems to have the wind at his back right now. And, as the Los Angeles Times' Ben Bolch wrote, scouts are taking notice:
""He doesn't really blow you away with any one particular thing," an Eastern Conference scout said. "What is TJ Leaf great at? It would be hard to answer that, but I can tell you what, he does a lot of really, really good things on both ends of the floor."
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He’d also be an interesting addition to a Lakers squad that would benefit from more frontcourt versatility.
Jonathan Isaac, PF/SF, Florida
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Florida State's Jonathan Isaac is a bit of a dark-horse candidate as a Lakers lottery pick, but he seems to be trending upward on various boards.
Isaac also possesses a skill set that L.A. could use—the reedy 6'11" combo forward has great handles on the ball, is a quick defender and can shoot from anywhere on the floor.
He's a bit like Ingram in that regard—extremely long, athletic and underweight at 205 pounds. And like Ingram, the 19-year-old freshman can be streaky from three-point territory.
But this is the kind of player teams are so intrigued with now, and it's tantalizing to imagine L.A. with two young Kevin Durant-types on the floor at the same time.
Isaac has been a phantom presence for the Seminoles, coming up huge in some games and deferring too often in others. He's still growing into his body and has a lot of developing to do, but the potential upside is ridiculous.
Josh Jackson, SF, Kansas
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Kansas freshman Josh Jackson is an explosive, eye-popping playmaker. The 6'8" small forward is also a feared defender with excellent lateral movement, quick hands and the ability to use his athleticism to switch on to larger players.
But it's not all gravy. The McDonald's All-American can be undisciplined, overly reliant on speed and physical skills, and prone to overdribbling. He's also a streaky shooter who sometimes launches ill-advised attempts, and who's better at creating for himself than off the catch-and-shoot.
There have also been off-court issues. As reported by the Kansas Star, Jackson was suspended for the Jayhawks' opener in the Big 12 tournament after being cited for backing into a parked car and leaving without notifying anyone. There was also a previous incident for which no suspension resulted, in which he was accused of inflicting damage to the car of a Kansas women's basketball player.
Jackson still needs to fill out at 203 pounds and there's the question of how he would fit into Walton's system of equal opportunity ball movement. And with Ingram already on the roster, is there really a need for another raw wing?
Despite the question marks, the 20-year-old is a prospect with impressive basketball instincts who chases down blocks and delivers mind-boggling, sky-high jams in transition. This is an electrifying baller.
Lonzo Ball, PG, UCLA
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By now, the parental preference has become known throughout the land of sports—Lonzo Ball's dad wants him to play for the Lakers.
"I'm not trying to say he won't play for a different team," LaVar Ball told ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman. "But I'd like him to play for the Lakers because it's home and I'd love him to learn from Magic [Johnson]. He's the best guard ever to me, and nobody better for Lonzo to learn from than Magic Johnson."
This would be the same pops who boasted about his own skills to USA Today's Josh Peter: "Back in my heyday, I would kill Michael Jordan one-on-one."
OK, time to return to planet earth.
There's a huge question lurking here. The younger Ball is a 19-year-old point guard and the Lakers already have a 21-year-old playing the same position, namely D'Angelo Russell whom they've been trying to mold into a franchise star.
Is it already time to abandon one former second-overall pick and start fresh with a new top-three pick?
Russell was lauded as a wunderkind from Ohio State with crazy passing skills and Ball from UCLA is the new kid with an equally flashy delivery system. But Ball, at 6'6" and a skinny 190 pounds, also has some troubling weaknesses including a funky sidewinder-shot mechanism.
The freshman floor general has plenty of speed, good court vision, and he has managed to make his screwy jumper work so far during his nascent career. But it's also not hard to picture the beanpole getting that shot crushed by veteran NBA guards.
Markelle Fultz, PG, Washington
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L.A will need a ton of luck in the lottery if it's going to nab Markelle Fultz, the freshman Washington point guard and probable No. 1 pick. Then again, the Huskies are out of March Madness after a disastrous 9-22 season. It's not completely inconceivable that Ball could move to the top with a great NCAA tournament.
The question about the Lakers drafting a newbie point guard still remains. But Fultz, while only 18, presents a polished package. He's got an NBA-ready body at 6'4" and 195 pounds, can shoot from pretty much anywhere with a balanced release, and he shifts effortlessly through traffic.
Plus, there are no troubling questions about the type of player Fultz could be as a pro—he's equally comfortable on the ball or off it, can play both ends of the floor and already seems to have that innate sense of letting the game come to him.
Fultz averaged 23.2 points, 5.7 boards, 5.9 assists and 1.6 steals through 25 appearances this season. He also went to the line a ridiculous 6.7 times per game and averaged 1.2 blocks to boot. It may be that last stat that's the most revealing—a guard who's the best rim defender on his team.
It's not at all hard to visualize Fultz and Ingram in the same lineup, causing all sorts of matchup nightmares. It's also easy to picture him on the give-and-go with Randle, feeding Ivica Zubac for an easy dunk or simply pulling up and letting it fly.
But it's not so easy to imagine him on the same roster with Russell.
Stats are courtesy of Sports-Reference and are accurate through the end of the regular NCAA season unless otherwise noted. Measurements are via DraftExpress or school sites.
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