Loading ...
The Los Angeles Lakers own the seventh pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, the highest they’ve had since drafting James Worthy number one overall in 1982. The team has been shopping the pick — both as a stand-alone as well as in a package deal — to see what is available via trade what with former two-time league MVP Steve Nash’s $9.7 million contract expiring. If L.A. can find a trade partner and clear $11- 12 million in salaries this summer, it will create $30 million in salary cap space to chase free agents during the summer of 2015.
The 2014 draft class is deep in talent. NBA fans have been hearing about 6′ 8″ 200 lb. University of Kansas’ shooting guard Andrew Wiggins, 6′ 8″ 241 lb. Duke University’s small forward Jabari Parker and 6′ 3′ 227 lb. Oklahoma State’s point guard Marcus Smart for at least a year. The two players that have created the most buzz leading up to the draft are University of Kansas’ center Joel Embiid and an Australian point guard, Dante Exum.
Exum, 19-years-old, 6′ 6″ and 196 lb., is projected to be selected in one of the top three positions. But he is also a mystery. Ssome believe that he has not played in the United States but this is not true. Exum has spent multiple summers in the U.S., played against the Duke Blue Devils’ Jabari Parker, the Kentucky Wildcats’ Julius Randle, the Arizona Wildcats’ Aaron Gordon and the Indiana Hoosiers’ Noah Vonleah at last year’s Nike Hoops Summit where the Australian guard scored 16 points in only 22 minutes.
A year before, Exum stood out at the Adidas Nations (described as “the premiere global high school basketball platform for player development and competition”) against similar top competition. The prevailing thought is that the Lakers will select one from the group of Vonleah, Gordon, Smart, Randle and Louisiana-Lafayette’s point guard Elfrain Payton. Currently, the only frontline player on the roster is Lakers’ center Robert Sacre… so a frontline player is a must.
There is a chance that Embiid could be available. Vonleah, Smart, Payton, Randle and Gordon have all performed well in multiple workouts for the Lakers. All five players have all of the physical attributes for success in the NBA. All are highly competitive and could fit on a rebuilding team with many needs and only three names on the roster. If a minor miracle happens, Exum or Embiid will be available for the Lakers to select.
Los Angeles had no idea that there would be a chance to land the number one player in the draft with the seventh pick.
The top-three prospects so far have been Embiid, Wiggins and Parker. That changed when Embiid suffered a stress fracture of the navicular bone in his right foot. He has had surgery to repair the injury and will be out of action for 4-6 months. His stock has dropped. The question now, how far will he slide? The Lakers need to talk to the young man’s doctors in order to find out the severity of a stress fracture he suffered in his right foot and his timetable for return.
The Cleveland Cavaliers will select either Parker or Wiggins first overall, but for teams with picks 3-10 — like the Lakers with the seventh pick — Embiid is worth the risk. While he could miss part or all of the 2014-2015 season, it is more a matter of the future. Embiid, currently being compared to Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon, was the consensus number one overall pick for 2014.
Navicular injuries are not as feared as a torn ACL or an Achilles tear. But eight players — six big men (Bill Walton, Kevin McHale, Yao Ming, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Curtis Borchardt and Brendan Haywood) and two perimeter players (Michael Jordan and Andrew Toney) — have had their career’s altered by the same injury. Navicular injuries (particularly recurring occurrences) have been more problematic for big men than perimeter players.
In the last eleven years, the seventh overall pick has produced only two All-Star game appearances. And six of the selections have been traded from the team that drafted them. The two best seventh overall picks in the past 11 years are the Golden State Warriors’ point guard Stephen Curry and the Cleveland Cavaliers small forward Luol Deng. The purple and gold are rebuilding though and need to select their next franchise player from either the 6′ 3″, 227 lb. Smart; the 6′ 9″, 250 lb. Randle or they should wait on the 7′ 0″, 250 lb. Embiid… if he’s available.
When an NBA team has to decide between frontcourt and backcourt talent, big men usually are the choice. The Lakers will decide if Smart — a hard-nosed point guard with size and length (6-foot-9 wingspan), savvy, toughness, solid defense, leadership, alpha dog mentality and a desire to win at all costs (an entity the Lakers have lacked at the position since Earvin “Magic” Johnson retired) — is capable of developing into an All-Star point guard.
They also need to decide if Randle — a double-double machine and prototype power forward with an excellent motor and tremendous offensive aptitude — can improve defensively and develop into an All-Star. Either player would improve the roster. The team brass needs to trust what they saw in person. There are no absolutes in sports and anything can happen on draft night.
My opinion? Julius Randle will be the newest Los Angeles Laker.
Leave a Reply