2017 NBA Draft: Ranking LA Lakers' Best Options with No. 2 Pick
The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t been a very good basketball team in recent years, but they’ve been some kind of lucky when it comes to the annual draft lottery.
The team with the third-worst record in the league not only kept its top-three-protected pick but actually jumped a spot, winding up as proud owners of the No. 2 selection for the third year in a row. New team president Magic Johnson was grinning huge from the lottery dais.
The widely assumed favorite for that slot is UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball, a baller with great size and superlative floor vision.
There’s certainly no guarantee that Ball is L.A.-bound, and there are other options to consider. That includes other positions of need, trading up or down or turning the pick into some other type of asset altogether.
It should also be noted that the lottery isn’t exactly a sure path to greatness. The Lakers are already loaded with young talent and are more in need of impact players in their prime than yet another starry-eyed guppy.
For all these reasons, we’re using these rankings more as a template of what we think should happen rather than what will probably happen.
All caveats aside, the Purple and Gold have to be as happy as a non-playoff team can be this time of the year. The Lakers are now primed for the first stage of offseason improvement.
5. Trade Down for De’Aaron Fox
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Now that the Lakers possess a coveted No. 2 pick, there won’t be an obvious desire to trade it away. But there are some impressive candidates lurking a few rungs down the latter, Kentucky point guard De’Aaron Fox being a prime example.
Would the Wildcat speedster like playing in Los Angeles? Sure he would, as relayed by Sporting News’ Mitch Lawrence:
"Of course I’d love to play for the Lakers. Magic is one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. He’s also one of the game’s greatest players, period. If I was able to play for the Lakers and be mentored by Magic Johnson, I would become a much better player.
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Fox’s draft stock has been on the rise since leading Kentucky to the Final Four in March. The wiry 19-year-old has good length for the position at 6’4” with a 6’6.5” wingspan. His stats—16.7 points, 4.0 boards, 4.6 assists and 1.5 steals—are solid, but they don’t tell the whole story.
With blazing open-court acceleration plus an array of spin moves and crossovers, Fox is a lot more explosive than the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell and a superior defender as well.
But there are also downsides. Fox has an iffy outside jumper, needs to hone his discipline and will also have to pack some muscle onto his 171-pound frame.
4. Draft Josh Jackson
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The Lakers leaked points like a sieve this season, and Kansas small forward Josh Jackson could help plug those holes. The 20-year-old is aggressive, has excellent footwork and can guard multiple positions.
NBA.com’s Scott Howard-Cooper quoted an unnamed basketball executive as saying of Jackson, “I think he’s close to being bust-proof on the defensive end.”
And, according to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, people in the Lakers organization “admire” Jackson (and Fox as well).
But would Jackson be too duplicative of Lakers wing Brandon Ingram? Each prospect has a similar rangy build, and each fits the positionless mold that has become the vogue in the NBA. On the downside, Jackson (like Ingram) can be an inconsistent shooter, not only from long distance but also at the charity stripe.
Passing up Ball in favor of Jackson is a longshot, but it’s not out of the question. Plus, adding depth at the wing isn’t a bad idea, especially considering Luol Deng’s obvious decline and the probability of Nick Young leaving via free agency.
3. The Obvious Choice: Lonzo Ball
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As mentioned earlier, Ball is the likeliest option and an attractive one at that. But when you pick Lonzo, you also get LaVar, the epitome of a brash, overly opinionated sports dad.
On the plus side, Papa Ball really, really wants his kid to don a Lakers uniform.
“That’s all we working out for is the Lakers,” said LaVar per Ryan Ward of Lakers Nation. “Just the Lakers. There’s nobody else that we need to work out for.”
On the minus side, LaVar relentlessly dominates the narrative with sensationalistic quotes, comparisons and a billion-dollar sneaker plan for his three balling sons: Lonzo and high school stars LiAngelo and LaMelo.
If the Lakers do (and they probably will) draft Lonzo, they’d better banish his dad from any and all practice facilities and assign him courtesy game tickets in a hermetically-sealed skybox.
Another potential red flag is Lonzo’s screwy side-action jumper, a case study in poor mechanics just waiting to be blocked. But somehow, the kid manages to put a sweet arc on his shot, and it often catches pure net.
Put the cautionary warnings aside, and you have a 6’6” point guard who led the NCAA in assists this season at 7.6 per game. His flair for facilitating will appeal greatly to both Walton and Johnson (as the latter averaged 7.9 dimes at Michigan State back in the day).
And that funky-looking shot? Ball converted 41.2 percent of his attempts from three-point land.
2. Luck out with Markelle Fultz
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It’s hard to imagine the Lakers not taking Markelle Fultz if presented with the opportunity. But is there any way on earth that the Boston Celtics at No. 1 won’t select the one-and-done Washington point guard?
There’s always hope that Boston decides it would prefer Ball with his uncanny floor vision and laser passes. There’s also the slim possibility that L.A. could trade up with their longtime rivals.
The subject of all this interest seems fine with the notion of donning purple and gold. Appearing on Sirius XM’s NBA Today (h/t Harrison Faigen of Silver Screen and Roll), Fultz described meeting Magic Johnson.
“First of all, it was an honor to meet him. It was just picking up knowledge,” Fultz said. “Him being a point guard and him telling me little pointers of what I can do better to become a better man and player, it was unbelievable.”
At just 18, the Husky has a polished game and an NBA-ready frame at 6’4” and 195 pounds. He plays both ends of the floor, can disrupt passing lanes with quick hands and blocked 1.2 shots per game. Add to that 23.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.9 assists and an impressive 41.3 percent from downtown.
If only his path to L.A. didn’t seemingly go through Boston.
1. Trade for Paul George
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Adding yet another promising rookie to the roster is always nice, but L.A.’s need for an established marquee name is much greater.
Enter the idea of trading the No. 2 pick for an established player—say, Paul George of the Indiana Pacers?
George will be a free agent in 2018, but the Pacers sputtered out in the playoffs, and there’s a school of thought that he could be traded this summer rather than lost for nothing in a year.
New Lakers prexy Johnson was asked on Jimmy Kimmel Live about what he’d say to the superstar if he ran into him, per NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman:
"We’re going to say hi, because we know each other. You just can’t say, “Hey, I want you to come to the Lakers,” even though I’m going to be wink-winking like [blinks repeatedly]. You know what that means, right?
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The Indy Star’s Nate Taylor recently weighed in on how L.A.’s lottery bump could lead to a new marriage: “The Lakers, whom George is reportedly interested in playing for, kept their pick by landing the second pick. It could be their best asset in negotiating a deal with the Pacers for George.”
L.A. would still have to toss in another valuable chip or two. But this could be the best shot of landing one of the league’s top players—a wing who’s still at the top of his game at 26—and a true two-way threat.
College stats courtesy of Sports-Reference.
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