The Los Angeles Lakers select a guard out of Kansas in the latest FanSided mock draft.
With everything going on in the NBA and all of the details around the league’s resumption in Orlando Flordia that fans have to digest, it can be easy to forget about the 2020 NBA Draft. It is even easier to forget about for the Los Angeles Lakers, who for the first time in quite some time, are not in play for the first overall pick in the lottery.
If things hold as is in the eight seeding games that the teams will play in Orlando then the Lakers will have the 29th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. That might not sound all that exciting, but the Lakers actually have a really good track record of selecting solid contributors in the late first and second round.
Kyle Kuzma, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr, Moritz Wagner, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, Thomas Bryant and Ivica Zubac are all examples of players who were selected late in the draft who are now impactful role players on their respective teams.
The Lakers are hoping to find that same thing in the 2020 NBA Draft — an impactful role player who could play in year one. Ian Levy believes that the Lakers found just that in his latest NBA Mock Draft over at our main site, FanSided.com.
With the 29th overall pick in the FanSided NBA Mock Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Devon Dotson, Kansas.
On paper, Devon Dotson does not seem that appealing for the Los Angeles Lakers. Dotson is a bit of an undersized guard at six-foot-two and does not fit the textbook three and D prototype that guards almost always have to have when playing alongside LeBron James.
Dotson is a solid defensive player and is a really good athlete and should be able to survive on the defensive end in the NBA, especially considering he is a really good off-ball defender.
But his three-point shooting needs a lot of work. He shot 30.9 percent from beyond the arc this season.
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The case for selecting Dotson is not his ceiling. It is the hope that he could make a tangible impact on day one as a defender in the backcourt. With two years at Kansas, instead of being a one-and-done player, the Lakers could be cautiously optimistic that he will be further along in development than other guard prospects at this point in the draft.
Our verdict: Pass
I like what Dotson could be as a defensive specialist in the NBA with his athleticism and off-ball prowess but the team would essentially be adding another Avery Bradley-type player with a worse jump shot that needs to develop. The team would not be adding any new dynamic to the roster.
Dotson will likely be in range for the Lakers at 29, though. NBADraft.net ranks him as the 25th-best prospect, Tankathon ranks him 38th and ESPN ranks him 33rd.
Dotson will be in play and he would not be a terrible selection for the Los Angeles Lakers but there certainly are other prospects that are more intriuging.