3 playoff heroes who easily could have been on the Los Angeles Lakers

3. Jayson Tatum

This one might be a bit of a stretch but stick with me. There is obviously no way the Los Angeles Lakers would have ever gotten Jayson Tatum once he was drafted by the Boston Celtics. However, the Lakers could have kept Tatum from being drafted in the first place.

The Celtics selected Tatum with the third overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, one pick after the Lakers took Lonzo Ball. It was pretty much a guarantee that the Lakers were going to draft Ball with the second-overall pick but Laker fans still cannot help but wonder what could have been with Tatum.

After all, Tatum grew up as a huge fan of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant, in particular. The fit would have been perfect and the Lakers could have turned a one-year championship into a true dynasty.

LeBron James still would have come to the Lakers and he and Tatum alone would have been good enough to win a championship. If the Lakers don’t trade for Anthony Davis then they would have also had Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and all of the draft picks to flip for more assets.

Or the team could have done the same Anthony Davis trade with Kuzma in the deal instead of Lonzo Ball (in this case, Tatum). We would have had a big three of LeBron, Davis and Tatum. Obviously, LA could have afforded it considering they are paying Westbrook far more than Tatum is currently making on his extension.

This is not one of those cases where the Lakers passed on a player who got drafted 10 picks later and became an all-star. Los Angeles had the chance to draft an All-NBA player with the second overall pick and missed out altogether.

Instead, Tatum is currently going toe-to-toe with Kevin Durant on a Boston Celtics team that very well could win the NBA Championship this season.