Los Angeles Lakers: Re-evaluating the four lottery picks during 2014-2017

Why D’Angelo Russell was the best selection:

One year after taking Randle with the seventh overall pick, the Los Angeles Lakers had one of three-straight second overall picks and took point guard D’Angelo Russell. Russell did not hit his stride until after he left Los Angeles, but that does not take away from the value of the selection.

The Lakers may not have gotten the version of Russell that they were hoping for but they still got a very solid young point guard who had some value. It might get forgotten about, but the Lakers being able to get rid of Timofey Mozgov’s contract by trading Russell was massive as without that the team’s two superstar plan would have never unfolded.

In terms of a pure talent standpoint in the 2015 NBA Draft, it is hard to make the case for any player over Russell with the second overall pick. Kristaps Porzingis is the only player that you could make the case for but he has only played in 237 games and is one of three players in the top-13 with less than 300 games played.

Jahlil Okafor is not what he was made out to be, Mario Hezonja does not compare to Russell and the rest of the top-10 do not really even come close. Even if Russell did not have his best years in LA, none of those other players, aside from Porzingis, would have had the trade value that Russell had.

Again, there was a late-round sleeper in Montrezl Harrell but his value at the time of the Nets trade was far less than Russell’s and he did not break out until the 2018 season. Myles Turner also was a solid selection at 11 but certainly would not have been worth the second pick in the draft.