Lakers Rumors: Darius Garland leaves draft combine with possible promise

There’s only a sample size of college work to analyze, injury concerns?

I do believe that Darius Garland walked out of the combine on an understanding that he will be a high draft pick. That’s the best case scenario, now let’s flip the script here and see what the worst scenario is.

Maybe his knee was bothering him and his camp wanted to hide it. Not that it happened that way, but if a franchise like the Lakers had to make a slam dunk pick in this year’s draft (believe me folks they have no choice here), I would be doing my due diligence and checking him out thoroughly. The Lakers can’t afford to have him sit out a year with an injury.

This is not Philadelphia and this is not “The Process”.

The book on Darius Garland only lasted five games due to a meniscus tear in his knee. But according to NBA experts such as Seth Greenberg, Darius Garland is NBA ready and can thrive in today’s high paced NBA style of play.

Again we have to assume that the Lakers will continue with the uptempo style of last year. Lakers fans will have to wait on the style of Frank Vogel considering that he is known as a defensive coach. But let’s look at how Jason Kidd can be of use for this topic of analysis.

Jason Kidd probably will implement a fast-paced offense similar to the style that he played when he came out of college. As Seth Greenberg stated in the video above, Garland reminded him of Damian Lillard (a stretch here in my opinion) who is not afraid to put up shots with confidence. Something that the Lakers at times had to beg Lonzo Ball to do in his first two years.

At Vanderbilt, Darius Garland tallied up 16 points and 2.6 helpers in his five games. He shot well knocking down 53% from the field and 47% from the land of the extra point on nearly five attempts.

Let’s be clear here, after last year’s roster devoid of shooters, it would be good to go through one season without hearing how LeBron James had been surrounded by shooters his whole career and why the Lakers didn’t follow suit.

Garland is considered a good shooter off the dribble and in catch and shoot situations. Let’s forget the off the dribble scenario. If Garland can just catch and shoot the ball with any type of consistency, the Lakers should draft him. Garland will get guaranteed minutes this season because there was no one on the roster last year that could knock down a corner 3-point shot.