Los Angeles Lakers: 3 bigs to target in the draft to replace current bigs
By Jason Reed
3. Killian Tillie, Gonzaga
Killian Tillie is a bit different from both Oturu and Carey. First of all, there is a slim chance that Tillie is selected in the first round and it might be a slight stretch to select him that high. However, he could go as high as the early second round, so the Lakers would have to get creative.
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I would love to see the Lakers somehow work out a trade to move into the early and mid-second round for a team that wants to move up. That would allow the team to take Tillie without reaching as well as get another asset in return.
Tillie is also different as he really is not a center. He is six-foot-ten and he is not a rebounding slouch, but he is more of a 4/5 hybrid than a traditional rim-protecting four. However, as we have seen, that is the direction that the NBA is going.
If the Lakers keep one of McGee or Howard (which they likely will) then getting a bench center like Tillie might not be a bad idea. He can hang in the modern NBA for sure and would add really good shooting to the team’s frontcourt.
Tillie is a career 44.4 percent three-point shooter in his four years with Gonzaga. In his senior season, Tillie averaged 3.8 threes per game and shot 40 percent. He can shoot the rock. He averaged 13.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.6 minutes per game.
Something that I personally love about Tillie is the fact that he has four years of college experience. We have seen it before with guys like Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart that having those four years can accelerate your impact in the NBA.
Four-year guys do not have the ceiling that the younger prospects do (for example, Kyle Kuzma does not have the ceiling that Brandon Ingram has, obviously).
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However, four-year guys almost always have a bigger impact right away and that is what the Los Angeles Lakers need: an instant impact.