I’ve said this a few times to friends and family when they ask me about who the Lakers should take in today’s draft:
“Flip a coin.”
Mitch Kupchak should strut onto that dais with a huge coin in his mangled hand and simply flip it. One side: Jahlil Okafor, the other: D’Angelo Russell. It’s that close.
-== Best Lakers Draft Pick & Free Agent Pairings ==-
If that’s the case, though, why not try to squeeze an extra asset or convince the Philatankia Seventy-Tankers to relinquish some of the protection on next year’s first-round pick the Lakers currently owe to the City of Brotherly Love?
On one hand, Jahlil Okafor represents potentially cornering the market for dominant low post scorers. On the other, D’Angelo Russell could be a 6’6” point guard the likes of which the Lakers haven’t had since, well, a really long time. No matter what, the Lakers could boast a type of player no one, or few at most, has on their roster.
Is there that big a difference between the two, though? And, if not, isn’t there value in picking second?
Let me put it another way.
One of my favorite exercises growing up was to draft an all-time team with my dad. It was a standard, snake-style draft. Picking first was nerve-wracking. Yes, Michael Jordan was the obvious pick, but was the gap THAT huge between him and, say, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Magic Johnson?
The answer: no.
So, during one such draft, my dad offered me the top pick for right to draft first the next two rounds. I was like, nine, so I took the bait.
Yes, I wound up with MJ, but dad picked Magic AND Kareem and I sat there like, well, crap.
The point of that story wasn’t to showcase how competitive my dad was with me, because he was ruthless. Instead, what I learned was: when forming any kind of team, it’s about asset allocation.
So, to bring this back to the Lakers tomorrow, why not posture about who the Lakers prefer. Philatankia is sitting there with Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel. Do you really think they’ll take another big man? If not, why not pretend to prefer Russell? If successful, the Lakers could grab another asset from the Tankers for basically nothing.
If the Tankers call their bluff and select Okafor, oh well, the Lakers wind up with the draft’s top point guard prospect. If Sam Tankie blinks and takes Russell, awesome! The Lakers wind up with the generational big man they wanted all along.
At the end of the day, trading down, at least to one spot holds little to no risk. And, as that probably means the asset they’d get in return might not be measurably impactful, when if full rebuilding mode – as we currently find the Lakers – everything counts.