Los Angeles Lakers: The Ultimate Guide to the 2018 Offseason
Draft Position & Possible Selections
The Lakers could steal a great prospect in the draft. As part of the deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers sending Isaiah Thomas and Channing Frye to L.A., Altman also agreed to send their unprotected first-round pick. This season, the Lakers will decide to either trade the pick away or use it to their advantage. Here are three players I believe they should consider drafting.
Anfernee Simons (SG/PG, IMG Academy)
Simons is a combo-guard who is loaded with a great positional size at 6’4″, a huge wingspan, and is ultra-smooth with his three-point shooting and seemingly effortless athleticism. Again, he is not the most NBA-ready prospect, but he is only 18 years old and is only going to get better.
At this point, any guard would be an upgrade over Tyler Ennis or Alex Caruso. With Isaiah Thomas’ looming free agency, Simons would be a nice scorer off the bench. Simons would also be able to fill in nicely if Ball, Hart, or any others get injured. Magic using him as a short-term or eight-year project could turn into another late-round steal for Los Angeles.
Aaron Holiday (PG, UCLA)
Hey! Another UCLA star point guard and brother of two NBA players! No, I didn’t choose him because Lonzo Ball was from UCLA. I chose Holiday because of his potential to become a great role player.
Holiday had an amazing junior season at UCLA. He averaged 20.3 points and 5.8 assists per game on 46 percent field goal shooting. It’s not Lonzo Ball-UCLA amazing, but it is pretty close. Holiday can space the floor and use his playmaking abilities with the role units.
Then again, his draft stock is slowly, but surely rising. Holiday should be considered a talent that Magic can use to build the young Lakers core. It would also be pretty fun to see Kyle Kuzma take jabs at Holiday on social media and in the locker room.
Chimizie Metu (PF/C, USC)
The USC big man can be a cheap and solid contributor for Los Angeles. There is not much depth at the center position for the Lakers. Brook Lopez is an impending free agent that doesn’t look to return due to minutes cut because of Julius Randle’s emergence and a statistical drop across the board. Thomas Bryant and Ivica Zubac are projects who haven’t shown much at the NBA level.
Metu, like Randle, is a traditional back-to-the-basket power forward. He also has emerged as a rim protector, averaging 1.7 blocks in his junior year at USC. Metu has the tools and the athleticism to engage in physical play in the post.