The Los Angeles Lakers have a couple of young players who have yet to reach their potential but could become big contributors for the team in the near future. Much of the attention has gone towards third-year wing Max Christie, but one player with a ton of room to grow and plenty to prove is last year’s first-round pick Jalen Hood-Schifino.
While it was known that Hood-Schifino was more of a project when the Lakers drafted him, the immediate success of the three players taken directly after him in Brandin Podziemski, Jamie Jaquez Jr. and Cam Whitmore made many question the Lakers’ selection.
Now coming into his second season and fully recovered from back surgery, Hood-Schifino has a lot to prove and he is already turning heads as Rui Hachimura mentioned him as a young player who is standing out in Lakers training camp so far.
“Jalen. Jalen has been great,” Hachimura said after practice Thursday. “I can see he’s been putting a lot of work in his body. He got way stronger. I can see that he’s just more confident. I know he had surgery over the summer, but he overcame and I think he looks strong, healthy so yeah, I like him.”
Adding a bit more strength should do wonders for Hood-Schifino, who already has great height and length at the guard position at 6’6 with a 6’10 wingspan. He has real two-way potential and showed great signs in the G League last season.
In 15 games with the South Bay Lakers, Hood-Schifino averaged 22 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists while shooting an excellent 43.2% from 3-point range on over five attempts per game. The potential with him is obvious, but he has gone under the radar, especially as he wasn’t able to play in Summer League due to recovering from that back surgery.
But the fact that he is standing out to Hachimura and others in training camp already bodes well for him ultimately fulfilling that potential and perhaps he can be a contributor for this Lakers team even sooner than expected.
Lakers’ Jalen Hood-Schifino details back injury that ended his rookie season
Having back surgery is a concerning thing for anyone, let alone a young athlete just beginning his professional career. That is what faced Jalen Hood-Schifino, who saw his rookie season ended early and the Lakers guard revealed exactly what the issue was concerning his back.
“I just had some back pain involving something in my disk and it had struck a nerve in my right leg,” the Lakers guard added. “Being young, getting that surgery, it wasn’t a crazy surgery, it was a minor surgery. The recovery time was good and I’m feeling great now and healthy and ready to go.”
Thankfully, it was something relatively minor in the grand scheme of things and he is now fully recovered and firing on all cylinders.
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