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Lakers own their 2nd round pick this year and their first is top 3 protected. Games get underway tomorrow.

Schedule link: http://espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard
DX Youtube page (for scouting videos): https://www.youtube.com/user/DraftExpress/videos

Names of interest:

NBADraft.Net projected top 5 and 31-40:

1. Ben Simmons (F 6'10, LSU, Freshman)
2. Skal Labissiere (PF/C 6'11, Kentucky, Freshman)
3. Jaylen Brown (SF 6'7, California, Freshman)
4. Brandon Ingram (SF 6'9, Duke, Freshman)
5. Jamal Murray (G 6'4, Kentucky, Freshman)
31. EC Matthews (G 6'5, Rhode Island, Junior)
32. Taurean Prince (SF 6'7, Baylor, Senior)
33. Timothe Luwawu (SG/SF 6'6, France)
34. Gary Payton II (PG 6'2, Oregon St, Senior)
35. Nigel Hayes (PF 6'8, Wisconsin, Junior)
36. Ron Baker (SG 6'4, Wichita St, Senior)
37. Joel Bolomboy (PF 6'8, Weber St, Senior)
38. AJ Hammons (C 7'0, Purdue, Senior)
39. Isaiah Cousins (SG 6'4, Oklahoma, Senior)
40. Troy Williams (SF 6'7, Indiana, Junior)

DraftExpress projected top 5 and 31-40:

1. Skal Labissiere (PF/C 6'11, Kentucky, Freshman)
2. Ben Simmons (F 6'10, LSU, Freshman)
3. Brandon Ingram (SF 6'9, Duke, Freshman)
4. Jaylen Brown (SF 6'7, California, Freshman)
5. Dragan Bender (PF 7'1, Croatia)
31. Malik Pope (SF 6'10, San Diego St, Sophomore)
32. Aleksander Vezenkov (F 6'9, Bulgaria)
33. Petr Cornelie (PF 6'11, France)[/b]
34. Alpha Kaba (PF/C 6'10, France)
35. Tyrone Wallace (G 6'6, California , Senior)
36. Melo Trimble (PG 6'3, Maryland, Sophomore)
37. Paul Zipser (PF 6'8, Germany)
38. DeAndre Bembry (SF 6'6, St. Joseph's, Junior)
39. Monte Morris (PG 6'3, Iowa St, Junior)
40. Isaiah Taylor (PG 6'3, Texas, Junior)

Can't go wrong with anyone in the top 5. I hope we don't gift wrap #4 to Philly. Seriously what was Mitch thinking with that protection on the pick when trading?

I'm not gonna worry about the top 5 too much yet. Some interesting names in the early 2nd though. Was really pushing for Luwawu last year until he withdrew. Alpha Kaba is someone we worked out and I think he finds his way into the first round. Melo Trimble will be a first rounder if he declares as well. Gary Payton II is someone to keep an eye on, reminds me of Patrick Beverly

I think it won't be too hard to lock up the worst record in the western conference, so I think we may end up keeping that top 3 protected pick. the worst record in the conference is guaranteed the top 3 pick right? gonna keep an eye on these prospects

props to moonpie for the early season thread, who else would've done it so early if not moonpie lol

Nah worst record in the league gets us like a 60 something percent chance to keep the pick IIRC

Really? I thought that's why Minny and Philly were guaranteed to at least get a top 3 pick. I must've misread that somewhere, damn that sucks lol

Slava wrote:Can't go wrong with anyone in the top 5. I hope we don't gift wrap #4 to Philly. Seriously what was Mitch thinking with that protection on the pick when trading?

We were going to be going for a 4-peat this year?

Would love to find a way to trade back into the first round/late lottery and get Devin Robinson, a SF from Florida. I think he can grow into a potential superstar and with Billy Donovan no longer coaching Florida, he may fall under the radar this year.

Watched Isaiah Taylor last night....no need to get a point who cant shoot worth a damn. He can penetrate though and has tremendous speed.

So the pro-tank crew has arrived eh?

I love what I saw from Ben Simmons last night. The kid is going to be special. I think his ceiling might be higher than Wiggins because he is so much more assertive while Wiggins is passive.

We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

Up-And-Coming wrote:We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

we are bad enough.

Simmons is coming in at 240 as a freshman

Mirjalovic wrote:

Up-And-Coming wrote:We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

we are bad enough.

C'mon man. I understand we have to look forward to something, but even if we continue to play this bad for the rest of the season, we will only have about a 40% chance of keeping the pick. That's too risky! Especially at the end of the season where most teams will be resting starters and then all of a sudden we start racking up wins which f's up all our chances.

I agree that's its too early to even think about this.....but out of the teams with records similar to ours right now, you can bet that the Pelicans and Nets will pick it up atleast somewhat. The nets don't have their pick so they have no incentive to tank, and in the east they have the lesser competition that should add up to some more wins. The pelicans will be better when Tyreke is back, and they have a top 3 player in the league. Honestly, it pretty much leaves us and Phili. But yeah im not going to start hoping for losses any time soon....the protection and the pick and the amount of veterans on our lineup make it irrational to start hoping for it this early. At the same time, our record is bad enough that a playoff run is also as ridiculous in the west.So, at this point, I'm just hoping to see progress from the young guys. A playoff run or an epic tank job would be nice, but both seem unlikely.

Up-And-Coming wrote:

Mirjalovic wrote:

Up-And-Coming wrote:We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

we are bad enough.

C'mon man. I understand we have to look forward to something, but even if we continue to play this bad for the rest of the season, we will only have about a 40% chance of keeping the pick. That's too risky! Especially at the end of the season where most teams will be resting starters and then all of a sudden we start racking up wins which f's up all our chances.

What are you risking though? I think top 3 pick 40-60% is better odds than the lakers making the playoffs.

Up-And-Coming wrote:We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

Preach bro....I'm trying to tell guys here we're not going to be able to keep that pick and even if we finish in the bottom 5 like certain guys are already talking here the pick is gone. People thinking that New Orleans will get going....news flash they won't because they done play defense,have depth issues up front and don't have quality guard play. I won't be surprise if they don't make the playoffs. And a lot of other teams will come back to reality in the next month.

So like you say losing game is way more risky, especially in terms of trying to get free agents to sign here. They have to see that the team is making some sort of improvements towards winning.

DEEP3CL wrote:

Up-And-Coming wrote:We shouldn't get our hopes up for a top 3 pick this upcoming draft. That is veryyy unlikely. I would be all-in for another tank job this season if our pick had full protection. The fact that it doesn't, there is too much risk involved to give up another season. Despite how terrible we are right now, it's not bad enough to keep the pick...

Preach bro....I'm trying to tell guys here we're not going to be able to keep that pick and even if we finish in the bottom 5 like certain guys are already talking here the pick is gone. People thinking that New Orleans will get going....news flash they won't because they done play defense,have depth issues up front and don't have quality guard play. I won't be surprise if they don't make the playoffs. And a lot of other teams will come back to reality in the next month.

So like you say losing game is way more risky, especially in terms of trying to get free agents to sign here. They have to see that the team is making some sort of improvements towards winning.

dude, you've been saying ish like this the past 2 drafts. we ended up getting no.2 this year from being one of the worst after we were supposed to be a subpar .500 team. this season, i really do not know who are worse than the lakers other than the sixers, unless the nuggets decide to blow it up by the trade deadline. the blazers are playing well under terry stotts, and the nets should be winning more games that being in the east. jazz, wolves, and the magic have more talent than us and are far doing better than us lakers are. heck, even the bucks and knicks are doing darn well, again lemme mention they are in the east. as far as new orleans, they probably won't make the playoffs, or they probably will. but they are a far better team to being at least over .500 or near it at worst.

Ben Simmons is special.

i can't understand why people say he's not a generational talent, but for me has "it"

it's okay if the lakers skip the most advanced 19 years old post player in the past 20 years, but you can't skip Ben Simmons, IF we win the lottery.