Los Angeles Lakers have second round of pre draft workouts
The Los Angeles Lakers began their pre-draft workouts for the 2018 NBA Draft last week. In the first workout, the Lakers hosted six players. Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ headlined the first group of players working out.
The first workout was an interesting mix of players. Two Louisville players, Deng Adel and Anas Mahmoud, were in attendance. Wyoming senior forward Hayden Dalton and Creighton senior guard Marcus Foster also took part. Junior point guard Sedrick Barefield of Utah was the last player that was a part of the workout, but he is likely to return to school.
In the second workout, Los Angeles hosted six more players. This time around, the players were much more recognizable to the casual fan.
Keita Bates-Diop of Ohio State, Jalen Hudson of Florida, Rob Gray of Houston, Caleb Martin of Nevada, Udoka Azubuike of Kansas and Jo Lual-Acuil of Baylor took part in the second workout.
Bill Oram of the So Cal News Group shared the workout update on his Twitter account.
Sorry, tweeted before I saw the whole list, which also includes Jalen Hudson (Florida), Keita Bates-Diop (Ohio State), Udoka Azubuike (Kansas), Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. (Baylor) https://t.co/pSOWByBJiw
— Bill Oram (@billoram) May 7, 2018
In addition to the workout list, Oram shared what the Lakers were looking for this time around. While Los Angeles will be looking to make another late round splash, what they are really focusing on is defense.
ICYMI from @billoram: The #Lakers hope to unearth another late first-round gem in the #NBAdraft, and their message to the players at Monday's pre-draft workout was crystal-clear: DEFENSE will separate you from the pack. https://t.co/IyN1GLDmlX
— OC Register Sports (@OCRegSports) May 8, 2018
The Lakers defense improved immensely this past season compared to 2016-17. In 2016-17, the Lakers defense rating was 113, the worst in the NBA. This season, the Lakers defensive rating was 108, which was 12th in the NBA.
Some of the players that were hosted in the second workout were defensive minded players. We took a deeper look at each prospect, breaking down some of their strengths and weaknesses and looking at how productive they were this past season.