The Los Angeles Lakers currently hold the No. 25 pick in the upcoming NBA draft (June 23-24), which is always a difficult place to be if you're looking for immediate value. The Lakers' two biggest needs -- overall, not just in the draft -- are a center and an athletic wing who can defend multiple positions (they could actually use two of that type of wing).
With a guy like Jalen Duren likely unattainable to the Lakers in free agency, one would think that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka might have the center position on his mind with the No. 25 pick, but on the contrary, there might not be a ready-now rim protector available that late in the first round for the Lakers to snag.
This is precisely what Sam Vecenie of The Athletic discussed in a recent episode of his Game Theory pod.
Lakers won't likely have an impact center available to them in the draft
With big men like Caleb Wilson, Hannes Steinbach, Morez Johnson, and Chris Cenac all sure to get drafted before No. 25, the Lakers will be looking at a crop of players to choose from that are either risky projects (Jayden Quaintance, Aday Mara) or upper-classmen college guys who might not be long enough to translate seamlessly to the pros (Zuby Ejiofor, Tarris Reed). It's for this reason that Vecenie believes the Lakers might forego the big man market entirely at No. 25 and go in a different direction.
"I think if I'm the Lakers, I'm not looking at the big [man] market anymore at No. 25," Vecenie said. "I'm looking more at ... are there trade options available? Second, are there any wings that really could help me defensively?"
Lakers desperately need to add defensive depth on the wing
With the Lakers expected to re-sign Austin Reaves to a new max deal this summer, LA is about to have a ton of money invested in two stars -- Reaves and Luka Doncic -- who need gifted perimeter defenders around them to win.
The problem for the Lakers is that they don't have enough of those gifted defenders on the roster at the moment, and one of them (Marcus Smart) is probably going to opt out of his player option in the coming weeks.
Luka and Reaves are both 27 years old. They are ready to win now. But the Lakers' roster isn't, and the draft isn't exactly the place to fix that issue, at least not when you're outside of the lottery. Maybe Pelinka can strike gold late in the first round, but even then, the Lakers have multiple holes to fill this offseason that one dynamite draft selection alone cannot account for.
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