The Los Angeles Lakers are about two weeks away from learning their fate in the NBA Draft Lottery on May 17. The storied franchise has a top-three protected pick in the upcoming draft and will need things to go their during the draft lottery to retain their first-round selection.
On Tuesday on The Herd with Colin Cowherd, an interesting rumor surfaced about what the Lakers intend with their lottery pick if they can keep it and avoid sending it to the Philadelphia 76ers.
According to Colin Cowherd, even if the Lakers are able to keep their pick and it happens to be first overall selection, the team will trade it away. Cowherd claims multiple sources have given him the same information about the Lakers’ intentions:
"I've been told by 2 separate sources — even if the Lakers get the No. 1 pick, they're trading it." – @ColinCowherdhttps://t.co/kHG6mV9TPP
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) May 3, 2016
It’s no secret that the Lakers organization is desperately seeking their next superstar player. Now that Kobe Bryant has retired after two decades, the team needs a successor to emerge, and that may happen with a blockbuster trade.
Although it’s early in the offseason for teams that didn’t make the NBA playoffs, a few big-name players could be on the trading block this summer. Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, as Cowherd mentioned, and Jimmy Butler of the Chicago Bulls are two All-Star-caliber players that may be available with Lakers potentially being a team interested in their services.
The consensus heading toward the 2016 NBA Draft is there may be two potential superstars taken with the first two selections. Ben Simmons out of LSU and Duke’s Brandon Ingram are considered to be the top two players in the draft with a considerable drop-off in talent once they are both off the board.
All signs point to Simmons and Ingram getting taken one and two respectively with no clear choice for third overall. Other notable names expected to be in contention for the third pick are Buddy Hield (Oklahoma), Kris Dunn (Providence), Jamal Murray (Kentucky) and international product Dragan Bender (Israel).
With Simmons and Ingram being attractive trade pieces, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the team makes a blockbuster trade with a player like Cousins, Butler or another proven star in the league coming to Los Angeles in return.
[H/T to Ross Gasmer of The Herd]