Aloha,
There are only a couple of guys this year considered potential franchise players. But this draft considered extremely deep with good players. And the mock drafts reflect this. I can not recall a year where there was so little consensus beyond the first 7 or 8 guys.
I have seen Colby Buftkin coming to us. I have also seen him in the low teens and 20’s. A new mock is out today that had him at 8. I’ve seen Jett Howard coming to us and also a late lottery pick. And I’ve seen him at 30. A new mock has Lively coming to us. I have also seen him at 10, 12, 19 and 22.
If there was ever a year to trade back in the draft, this might be the year. There doesn’t seem to be much difference between drafting at 17 or 26. There are many players in the 2nd round that also show up in the first round.
We can now offer 2nd round players and undrafted player a 3rd year even if we are over the cap. Too bad that wasn’t in place for Austin.
This could also be a year where some hidden gems go undrafted. The CBA gives teams 3 two way players now which is great for the Lakers because of our excellent scouting department.
Older I get, the less I pay much attention to the pre-draft talk. Everybody (agents, GMs, etc) is lying to the media to further their own agenda who in turn eats it up cuz they need content to fill the news cycle. And now with so many dudes coming from the experimental cocoons of G-League Ignite & Overtime Elite we really haven’t seen guys play in a traditional environment. And add that to the influx of foreign-born players. We as fans are just relying on highlight reels and hearsay…we don’t see these guys play in actual complete games like in the past.
So once we sift through all the lies & disinformation we end up with some poor kid still sitting in the green room 3hrs later and wondering what happened.
Yeah…I’m cynical..lol
I rarely tune into the draft, I have never been into college hoops, couldn’t begin to follow Euro or all the G leagues and so…:yeah. Trust the scouts who have done great the last few.
Unless it’s a lottery pick, we usually get blindsided. So yeah, I just wait and see.