Aloha,
It looks like the Lakers went with went with upside instead of a play and plug player. He was a 5 star recruit that didn’t live up to that. He is a good defender and had a reputation as a shooter coming in to college. That didn’t materialize but he has a nice stroke and he’s 19. It was said that if he rediscovered that shot that he would be a likely lottery pick next year. I really trust our scouting department so we will see if they were right again.
Hopefully they got who they wanted, and he fits with Ham’s vision. Seems promising.
His pro comparison was Danny Green. So a 3 and d wing shoot fit with Ham.
Disappointing that we did not go for size.
Another 6′ 5″ shooting guard who can’t play the three.
I’ll give the scouts the benefit of the doubt. Obviously have done well lately.
It’s just an odd pick, especially considering they hadn’t even tried out players in that range and ended up picking a guy at 35 that they could have had at 45 whom they had not even worked out.
It’s not like Max is a secret. He’s a hot high school 5-star prospect who had a mediocre college career. Hope I’m wrong and the Lakers uncovered another gem like Caruso and Reaves.
The only thing I can figure is they were looking for a center and had to punt when everybody they liked was gone. Would have liked to have seen them draft a real wing (6′ 7″ to 6′ 10″) rather than another shooting guard.
What is it about Pelinka and shooting guard. They probably try to play Max at the three, where he will be trying to stop 6′ 8″ players.
I think when you are drafting in the 2nd round you are looking for maximum upside regardless of size or position. If they felt Max had the most potential of the names on the board then you go with it. Both Kuz and Hart were considered reaches. Neither were projected as 1st round picks, so we’ll see.
Here’s some positive notes on his fit defensively.
https://twitter.com/Tim_NBA/status/1540453598466920449