Lakers finally acknowledge the elephant in the room with Tony Bennett move

The Los Angeles Lakers' NBA Draft strategy over the past decade has been, in essence, just make the pick and pray for the best. From 2014 to 2017, the team selected Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, and Lonzo Ball in consecutive drafts. All things considered, that's a very solid four-year stretch of selections from Rob Pelinka.

Since then, the team's best first-round selection has probably been Max Christie, a pick that admittedly looks better because he was part of the Luka Doncic trade. Outside of Christie, though, the Lakers picks have never felt like they've been made with plans in mind. Thus, the hiring of Tony Bennett as a "draft advisor" feels like the organization finally addressing the elephant in the room; the Lakers haven't cared about the draft in almost a decade, and it's coming back to bite them.

Lakers are finally coming to a realization with Tony Bennett hire

This team has acquired stars over the past decade simply because they're the Los Angeles Lakers. That's never been an issue. But building out the roster around those stars has been an issue, and a huge part of that issue stems from the lack of attention paid to the draft.

Instead, the Lakers have been forced to sign MLE-level free agents and guys who are willing to sign vet minimum deals. But year after year, those guys show why they're mid-level and vet minimum caliber players.

Even Austin Reaves, who is Rob Pelinka's crown jewel as the Lakers president, was an undrafted free agent. There is a glaring lack of draft success stories for this team in recent memory.

I have no idea whether Bennett can fix that himself, but bringing him in at least feels like Pelinka admitting that he, and the rest of the front office, need some extra eyes on the draft.

Lakers head coach JJ Redick described Bennett as an "additional basketball resource," which I agree is almost always a positive. There can be too many cooks in the kitchen, but Bennett specializing in one specific area should allow the front office not to feel overcrowded.

It's also worth noting that Bennett produced numerous guys who would have been home runs for the Lakers if they paid a little more attention to the draft — Ty Jerome, Trey Murphy III, and Ryan Dunn all came out of UVA in recent years.

Maybe the Lakers won't immediately start finding hidden gems in the draft because they hired Tony Bennett. But they can't be much worse at drafting than we've seen over the past five-plus years, so... Can't hurt!