2. Frank Ntilikina
Frank Ntilikina was taken one pick ahead of Dennis Smith Jr. in the 2017 NBA Draft and it is fitting considering the position both of them are at in their careers. They are both guards, were teammates on the New York Knicks and are now free agents without many suitors despite being young in the league.
With Smith the hope would be to channel his athleticism and build hit shot, as well as his defensive abilities, to create a high-energy guy who can actually stretch the floor and stay on the court to play defense.
Ntilikina actually has a skill already that can be valuable to a team: defense. It gets overlooked because he is such a zero on the offensive side of the court but Ntilikina is a legitimately good defensive player with size and length in the backcourt.
Ntilikina has gotten better defensively every single season in the league and although it was a small sample size, he posted a 2.2 Defensive Box Plus/Minus last season. Alex Caruso posted a 2.3 DBPM.
Ntilikina still is not quite what Caruso is but Caruso can be a telling sign for the Lakers. The Lakers took a good defensive guy that was a zero offensively and turned him into one of the team’s most important defenders as well as someone who could help offensively.
Ntilikina has a lot of work to do but it is not like it is impossible. He is only 23 years old and his first three NBA years can be viewed as his college year. With Olympic experience under his belt, and with a team that can actually build him up, Ntilikina can carve out a career as a role player in the NBA.