Lakers Rumors: Scouts liked Omari Spellman over Moritz Wagner

Recent Lakers rumors are that their scouting staff preferred Omari Spellman over Moritz Wagner in the 2018 NBA Draft.

There has been no shortage of Lakers rumors so far this offseason. From all of the drama surrounding the team, there has been plenty of buzz surrounding the Lakers.

One of the recent rumors about the team goes back to the 2018 NBA Draft. Over the past few years, the Lakers have been a very good team when it comes to finding talent in the NBA Draft. While they have had some high picks result in good players coming to Los Angeles, they have also found talented players later in the first round.

In the 2017 NBA Draft, the Lakers struck gold late in the first round when they selected Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart. Both players will be either starters or important rotation players in the NBA for years to come. Considering when they were selected in the draft, they were both steals.

Despite their scouting department having success in recent years, the brass of the Lakers reportedly didn’t take their advice in 2018. Baxter Holmes of ESPN reported that the some in the Lakers second war room were shocked when they took Moritz Wagner over Omari Spellman. Here’s what Holmes had to say.

"“As the Lakers neared their 25th pick in the first round, staff members in the second war room expected — and, according to one basketball operations staffer present, were excited — that they would select Villanova power forward Omari Spellman, who was the highest-ranked remaining player on the Lakers’ draft board, according to multiple team staffers present. Instead, the Lakers took [Moe] Wagner, the forward from Michigan. Sources said that inside the second war room, scouts and other staff members watched the pick on television and were shocked."

Considering the success that the Lakers scouts have had over the past number of years, a surprise overruling by Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson is certainly surprising. For the Lakers, they got essentially zero production from Wagner in meaningful games this season.

Wagner was a very good player at Michigan, but he didn’t do much of anything to replace Brook Lopez as a stretch big man. Even though Spellman didn’t light it up in his rookie season with the Atlanta Hawks, he did miss a significant amount of time with an ankle injury and still outperformed Wagner.

With the fourth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Lakers will have to make sure that they make a good selection. Los Angeles has a very good scouting department, and if it is Pelinka making the final decision on the pick, he should listen to his scouts.