If you had said at the start of the 2022-23 NBA season that the Los Angeles Lakers were going to figure out their Russell Westbrook mess en route to making the Western Conference Finals, even those with the Lakers may not have believed you!
Well, here we are entering the NBA offseason and the Lakers are not only coming off an appearance in the conference finals, but Westbrook is no longer on their roster and as a result, Los Angeles has options on what they want to do this summer.
The 2023 NBA Draft is less than three weeks away and the Lakers are scheduled to pick 17th overall. Last season, Los Angeles selected Max Christie 35th overall in the second-round and the organization as a whole has not welcomed in a first-round pick since 2018 with Moritz Wagner, who they took 25th overall.
Could this be the year the Lakers finally keep their draft pick and bring in a really talented rookie?
Perhaps general manager Rob Pelinka and owner/assistant GM Jeanie Buss will hold onto this pick, but the idea of trading this selection and getting LeBron James some more help is also on the minds of this franchise. In his recent Lakers offseason mailbag, The Athletic's Jovan Buha discussed the options the Lakers have with the 17th overall pick this year and what their plans are as of this moment.
“The most likely outcome is the Lakers keeping the No. 17 pick,” Buha wrote. “But that could change if the right trade becomes available — including a team making an enticing offer for the Lakers to trade back later in the draft. I think the right trade would involve using the pick to secure a starting-level upgrade available in a trade on draft night or later this offseason.”
While the Lakers do not have a lot of trade assets heading into the offseason, there is still a chance they could look to package this first-round pick in order to land a player like Myles Turner from the Indiana Pacers as Buha mentioned. However, it is hard to imagine that Los Angeles would be able to put together a good enough trade package to land an impactful talent like Turner.
Other than LeBron and Anthony Davis being under contract for next season, the only other guaranteed contracts the Lakers have belong to Max Christie and Jarred Vanderbilt, as the contracts of Mo Bamba and Malik Beasley are non-guaranteed.
Keeping their draft pick this year and adding a young, dynamic talent is something that sounds very appealing to the Lakers right now. This is the most plausible path for Los Angeles over the next few weeks leading up to the draft despite their lack of recent draft success.
There will be a wide array of intriguing draft prospects available with the 17th overall selection this year, especially given that some players projected to go in the lottery could wind up falling in the Lakers' lap.
As of right now, the Lakers are projected to select Michigan's Jett Howard in ClutchPoints' 2023 NBA Mock Draft 2.0 that was released earlier this week. Jordan Hawkins (#15), Kris Murray (#17) and G.G. Jackson (#19) are three other players ranked around the 17th pick in ClutchPoints' latest 2023 NBA Draft Big Board 2.0.
This is an important time for the Lakers and what they decide to do with their first-round selection this year will be very telling as to if they can contend for a title in what many believe will be James' final few years in the NBA.
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