The fact that the Lakers are in the lottery in back-to-back years is almost unprecedented. Prior to 2014, the last time the Lakers were in the lottery was in 2005, and they selected Andrew Bynum with the tenth overall pick.
With this year’s NBA lottery drawing just around the corner (relatively speaking), let’s look back at last year’s draft.
After finishing with a record of 27-55, the Lakers entered the 2014 lottery with a 6.3 percent chance of landing the first overall pick. Much to fans chagrin, the Lakers finished their miserable 2014 campaign by winning their final two games, giving them the sixth worst record in the league. Notably, the Jazz and Celtics both finished 25-57, and after a coin flip, they were slotted in the lottery drawing at 4 and 5 respectively.
As most know, on lottery night, only one team moved up in the draft: the Cavs. Slotted in the lottery drawing at number 9, the Cavs had a 1.7 percent chance of getting the number one overall pick, and they freakin’ got it. As a result, every team below them were bumped one spot back in the NBA draft (which was really unfortunate for the Pistons because their pick was top 8 protected, so after they got bumped to 9, their pick was sent to the Hornets).
With the Lakers knowing they were picking seventh, several players were guaranteed to be out of their range. Specifically, Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid were going to be long gone by the time the Lakers made their selection. Also, it was considered very unlikely that the Australian man of mystery Dante Exum would be available.
In early June, the Lakers worked out a number of players, most notably Aaron Gordon, Marcus Smart and Noah Vonleh, all players projected to be in the range of the number 7 pick. On June 17th, the Lakers held a private workout with Julius Randle. And on June 20th, the Lakers worked out Gordon and Smart again, as well as Elfrid Payton, among others.
After all of these workouts, the fateful night was finally upon the Lakers. It’s fair to say that outside of Wiggins, Parker and Embiid, it was pretty unclear who was going to get picked before the Lakers could make their selection. So the Lakers sat back and watched the Magic select Gordon, the Jazz pick Exum, and the Celtics take Smart. We all know what happened next.
Word on the street is the Lakers front office burst out in excitement when they heard the Celtics selected Smart, as they were worried that the Celtics would pick Randle.
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So, apparently, Randle was the Lakers guy all along. This is because he really impressed Lakers management during his workouts, showing off a diverse skill set for a big man, as well as his strong work ethic by agreeing to go one on one with the Mad Dog Mark Madsen.
Unfortunately, the hope and promise Randle presented to the Lakers was cut short when he suffered a broken leg in the first game of the regular season, which caused him to miss the rest of the year.
But assuming the Lakers keep their top 5 pick in this year’s draft, and with the emergence of Jordan Clarkson, the Lakers could suddenly have a roster full of promising young players next season, offering Lakers fans hope for the future.
And after this past season, a little hope could go a long way.