The Los Angeles Lakers will have the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft and are in a great position to land a game-changing player. Now the debate heats up about whether Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor should be the top pick on June 25 and which player will end up in Los Angeles.
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The Minnesota Timberwolves own the top pick in the draft and can’t go wrong with either Okafor or Towns. Although Towns seems to be the player getting the most buzz to be selected with the number one overall pick, T’Wolves head coach and team president, Flip Saunders, may favor Okafor over the Kentucky star.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Maggie Gray, Okafor may have alluded to the fact that he may be angling to be picked by the Lakers rather than the T’Wolves:
“I don’t know that I should go No. 1,” Okafor told SI Now host Maggie Gray in an interview that will air Wednesday. “I don’t care. I just want to go to the right environment for me and the right team. I think the hype about No. 1 is more for the fans.”
With the prospect of playing in Minnesota not being all that appealing for obvious reasons, it won’t be all that surprising to see Okafor and Towns try to force their way to Los Angeles. Neither player has really embraced the idea of playing in Minnesota yet, but with the Lakers looming in the second spot, it’s bound to get interesting moving forward.
Although it seems like a foregone conclusion that the Lakers will take one of these two centers with the second overall pick, it isn’t set in stone at this point. D’Angelo Russell out of Ohio State might also be an option the team seriously considers with the second pick.
The Lakers will workout 50 to 60 draft prospects in the coming weeks and the results of those workouts may tilt the scales in favor of Towns, Okafor or Russell. It’ll be interesting to see how it all pans out, but regardless of the results, the team is in a great position moving forward.
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