The good news came down on Tuesday night as the Los Angeles Lakers moved up from their number four slot and wound up with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft. This puts the Lakers in a great spot to drastically improve their team this off-season.
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Karl-Anthony Towns is expected to be the top pick which would likely leave the Lakers with Duke center Jahlil Okafor at number two. However, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding reports that the Minnesota Timberwolves may prefer Okafor to Towns:
Minnesota is believed to prefer prefer Jahlil Okafor, per @JerryZgoda, which could leave Karl Towns for the Lakers at No. 2.
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) May 20, 2015
Both big men would be gladly accepted by fans of the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, it’s no guarantee that the Lakers would want one of the bigs as there has been reports that the team prefers point guard Emmanuel Mudiay over Okafor. If Towns is there at number two, however, that is a different story.
Okafor is clearly the more polished offensive player. Scouts compared his footwork and post moves at his age to a young Tim Duncan, and he averaged 17.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in helping Duke to win a national championship.
Many consider Towns, the more complete basketball player to Okafor because of his superior defense and athleticism. He averaged 2.2 blocks in only 21 minutes per game, to go along with 10.3 points and 6.7 rebounds. Because Kentucky was so dominant and deep, Towns’ minutes and thus, overall stats were lower than what he could’ve produced.
[divide]Lakers Nation Draft Podcast: Top-5 Prospects
