NBA Draft 2011 Grades: Breaking Down Draft Night for the L.A. Lakers
The 2011 NBA draft saw a collection of young studs get drafted by a group of teams. The bad news is that the group was small enough to count on two fingers.
After Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams, there was a big drop-off in talent. That is saying quite a bit as both those players would be out of the top five in other years.
You had to brave a very boring draft to get to the Los Angeles Lakers selections. They were the New England Patriots of the NBA, stockpiling picks in the second round.
Here is a breakdown on everything the Lakers did on draft night, including the trades that were bandied about.
The Lakers may make it back to the NBA Finals, but not because of what they did on Thursday. Read on to see what I mean.
Darius Moore Selected No. 41
1 of 5The Lakers have one glaring hole on their roster: point guard. Los Angeles desperately needs an influx of youth at a position that has long been helmed for them by the elderly.
Darius Moore is simply the best player at the time. You can hardly bang the drum for the pick considering Moore may shoot himself out of the position.
Yes, he runs the floor well, and is a big, pure point guard. Yet, you can't have a player on the floor that can't find the bucket.
However, I still like this pick. The good news is the Moore is solid enough on all other areas that he will take some minutes from the increasingly aged legs of Derek Fisher.
Grade: B
Andrew Goudelock Selected No. 46
2 of 5The Lakers had a game plan going into the draft. You have to commend them for following that no matter what, and still getting out of the draft with decent picks.
Goudelock doesn't shore up a need as much as you would think. He may shoot the lights out of the building, but it is unclear where he will fit in with the Lakers.
Mike Brown likes to play defense, and Goudelock is too small to guard a 2, but he is not a good enough ball-handler to run the point.
The Lakers do have a guard that can stretch the floor with his shooting. Perhaps we have another Sasha Vujacic on the tam, but one that can actually score.
Grade: B-
Chukwudiebere Maduabum Selected 56
3 of 5NBA journalists all over are worried about Chukwudiebere Maduabum ever making his appearance in the NBA for of writing that name a couple of times a column.
Not much is known about the man they call Chu Chu. Chad Ford, in his assessment of the pick, explains the Lakers are sending this pick to Denver soon enough.
The big man played for the Bakersfield Jam and is a favorite of Nuggets' GM Masai Ujiri. So you can hardly grade the Lakers on a man they never had an intention of keeping.
Grade: NA
Ater Majok Selected 58
4 of 5The Lakers took another big man that only a select few had heard about on draft day. Ater Majok is long and athletic, but raw.
It is unclear what skill set he brings to the NBA. In Australia, he averaged 5.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in 14 games.
Those numbers were actually worse when he payed at UConn for the Huskies a couple of years ago. The Lakers like their big-men projects, and they certainly have one here.
Grade: C-
Final Grades
5 of 5The Lakers would have had a fine draft for being relegated to the second round if that is all they did. However, the Lakers had a number of proposed trades leaked that included many of their stars.
Mitch Kupchak has since dismissed the rumors as agent-fueled rumblings. It is unclear if he is just covering up for chemistry's sake.
Today, Kupchak now has a few players that are a tad annoyed they were close to being sent off. These players include: Andrew Bynum, Shannon Brown, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.
So in that regard, I have to downgrade an otherwise decent draft for the Purple and Gold.
Grade: C
For more 2011 NBA draft coverage, stay tuned to Bleacher Report for NBA draft results and NBA draft grades.
