The Los Angeles Lakers announced that they held another pre-draft workout on Friday and among the participants were Wisconsin’s D’Mitrik Trice, San Diego State’s Jordan Schakel, G League Ignite’s Isaiah Todd, LSU’s Javonte Smart, UC Santa Barbara’s JaQuori McLaughlin and Duke’s Matthew Hurt.
Out of the six players, Todd is the only one that could be a potential option for the Lakers at No. 22 overall in the first round, while the rest could all be options as late second-round picks or undrafted free agents.
Trice is one of the oldest prospects in this draft at 25 years of age and currently isn’t projected to get drafted, so could be someone the Lakers are looking for a Summer League roster spot.
The 6’0″ point guard played five years at Wisconsin and in his final season averaged 13.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 41.0% from the field and 37.3% from deep.
Schakel is another older guard prospect at 23, although he is bigger at 6’6″. He played four years at San Diego State, averaging 14.4 points and shooting an impressive 46.1% from three on 6.4 attempts in his senior season.
Todd is a prospect the best prospect of the bunch as the G League forward is projected to go late in the first round. The 19-year-old averaged 12.3 points and 4.9 rebounds in his first season with Ignite. In addition to having size at 6’10”, Todd could also shoot the ball a little bit, which is something the Lakers have greatly lacked the last few years.
Smart, another guard, played three seasons at LSU and was best in his junior year, averaging 16.0 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists. He is another strong shooting, knocking down three at a 40.2% clip on 6.2 attempts, which was a huge improvement from his first two seasons.
The combo guard has good size and length but at 22-years-old, he’s another late second-round or undrafted prospect.
McLaughlin started his college career at Oregon State before finishing up at UCSB. He shot better than 40% from three in each of his final two college seasons and averaged 16.0 points and 5.1 rebounds in 2020-21 as a guard.
Hurt, who is a bigger forward at 6’9″, is coming off an impressive sophomore season at Duke in which he put up 18.3 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting 44.4% from deep.
Lakers prioritizing shooting
It’s clear that the Lakers are prioritizing shooting this draft as this workout and their previous ones have all featured some of college basketball’s best 3-point shooters.
With not many resources at their disposal this summer, the 22nd pick will be very important for the Lakers to add some much-needed young talent to the organization and hopefully a player that can come in and contribute right away.
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