2021 NBA DRAFT

Owned Draft Picks: Own 2021 1st Round Pick (Pick #22)

One thing that the Lakers have done over the years in terms of building a championship contending roster is leveraging their draft assets, both picks and prospects. In fact, the Lakers did not have a single player on their roster this season that they drafted. 

Talen Horton-Tucker, Alex Caruso and Kyle Kuzma have spent the entirety of their young careers with the Los Angeles Lakers, but THT was drafted by the Magic in 2019, only to be traded to the Lakers on draft night, Caruso went undrafted in 2016 and worked his way up with the Lakers through the G-League and Kuzma was originally drafted 27th overall in 2017 by the Brooklyn Nets, only to be traded to the Lakers on draft night. 

Drafting prospects and keeping them on their roster has not been part of the Lakers’ plans over the years, but with their own first-round picks this year, they could finally hold onto whoever they draft and look to develop them. The Lakers do not have much youth on their roster and with LeBron James not getting any younger, they desperately need to start building for the future in some capacity. 

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They do not need to devote their entire offseason to adding a young core and begin rebuilding for the future, but here and there, Los Angeles does need to start adding some young players to their roster so they can learn from James and be “the future” of this Lakers organization. This will likely start this year, as the Lakers own the 22nd overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. 

There is definitely still a possibility that the Lakers could trade this pick in order to add another established, veteran-like player to their roster, but I would expect the Lakers to hold onto this pick and add a young player that fits well in their system. 

G Brandon Boston Jr. (Kentucky), F Jalen Johnson (Duke), F/C Kai Jones (Texas), G/F Scottie Lewis (Florida) and G Moses Moody (Arkansas) all signed with Klutch Sports to represent them and the CEO of Klutch Sports is Rich Paul, who happens to be LeBron James’ agent and one of his best friends, so all of these guys could potentially be on the radar for the Lakers in the draft, but most of them are too high up on draft boards for Los Angeles to potentially draft them 22nd overall. 

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There will however be plenty of talent on the back-half of this year’s draft in which the Lakers could be interested in. G Jared Butler (Baylor), G Chris Duarte (Oregon), F Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (Villanova) and G Ayo Dosunmu (Illinois) are all potential options for the Lakers that should be available when they are on the clock. 

As previously mentioned, there is still a possibility that the Lakers trade their first-round pick yet again in order to try and add more talent to contend for a championship, but the smart move for them this year would be to keep the pick and add a young player to their roster that they can develop into something within their system.