The Los Angeles Lakers will soon find out the fate of their the top-five protected draft pick. As long as two teams don’t jump ahead of the Lakers in the NBA Draft Lottery, the team will hold on to that pick, giving them the chance to add another major piece in a much anticipated draft.
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If the Lakers are fortunate enough to keep that pick, they will have three picks in the upcoming draft as they have the 27th overall pick via the Houston Rockets as well as their own second-round pick at 34th overall. According to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak believes that it may be too much to add three rookies to the roster:
It may be a little much to add three more young players,” Kupchak conceded. “There are options that you’d have and we’ll just wait to see what happens.”
Kupchak elaborated on the many options the Lakers have if they are fortunate enough to retain their own first-round pick via Oram:
We know having a pick in the lottery is an asset,” he said, “and with an asset like a pick you can use it to select a player, you could use it in combination with other picks to move up or down. You could trade it for an established player.”
The Lakers front office will have plenty of decisions to make when it comes the draft and this summer as a whole. They could easily package their top-five pick with one of their other picks to move up a couple spots to insure they get their top target. They could also combine the 27th and 34th picks to move up and take a player who drops into the late teens or early-20s.
With Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Tarik Black, Ryan Kelly, and Jabari Brown all possibly on the roster next year, the Lakers will be wary of adding too many more young players. With their salary cap space, the Lakers will have a number of ways to add new players and they will take advantage of every one of them.
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