The Lakers surprised a lot of people when they took D’Angelo Russell instead of big man Jahlil Okafor. The Lakers were responsible for shaking up the entire draft board. After all the buzz around Russell settled down a bit, the Lakers still had two picks left in the draft.
RELATED: 5 Reasons Why Lakers Must Succeed in Free Agency
While they were later picks, you can still find value late in the draft. Some thought the Lakers would try to move up in the draft with their two picks. Other felt the Lakers didn’t want to take another first rounder because of the guaranteed contract, but as we know, they chose Larry Nance Jr. and Anthony Brown.
Mitch Kupchak was a guest on the “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” and spoke about yesterday’s draft. Kupchak admitted that he could have traded the picks later in the draft, but the Lakers wanted to add to the roster. (via: Jacob Rude)
It looks like plenty of teams wanted to make a deal with the Lakers, but Kupchak was not interested. The Lakers don’t have many guaranteed contracts next year, so the two later picks will be cheap contracts that will hopefully develop into formidable basketball players.
The Lakers surprised everyone once again when they picked Larry Nance Jr., who was rated around the 50’s on most people’s mock draft, so they must have seen something they really liked. They could have added some more assets, but they were set on adding these two young guys to the roster.