With the NBA draft lottery fast approaching, the league will soon know the exact pecking order for when the draft officially begins on July 29.
However, the Los Angeles Lakers won’t have to worry about draft positioning because it did not conclude the regular season as a lottery team.
In May, the NBA conducted a tiebreaker process to determine where some teams will select because teams had identical records. The Lakers were in a three-way tie for the 21st overall pick.
But the tiebreaker results saw L.A. land the 22nd overall pick, and barring any trade that includes the pick, the Lakers will select later in the first round.
Since Los Angeles is selecting outside of the lottery, there might not be a star player available by the time L.A. is on the clock. But with the Lakers’ scouting record, it’s not out the window that L.A. could snag a player who could contribute immediately.
According to The Ringer’s latest mock draft by Kevin O’Conner, the Lakers select Louisiana State University guard Cameron Thomas:
“Too often last season, the Lakers watched their offense stall out. Thomas is the type of scorer who can jump-start a team. He’s a throwback who can thrive from midrange. Coming off the Lakers bench could provide him with a surplus of easy scoring opportunities as he develops to take on a bigger role in the future.”
Thomas, 19, is entering the NBA draft after playing at LSU for one season. He made the SEC All-Freshman Team and First-team All-SEC after 23.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting 40.6 percent from the field on 17.2 attempts and 32.5 percent from 3-point range on 7.2 attempts. He also converted on 88.2 percent of his free throws on 7.6 attempts.
As the Lakers witnessed this past season, the bench didn’t have the shotmaking punch to make consistent buckets when LeBron James and Anthony Davis needed rest.
Players like Montrezl Harrell provided scoring, but the ability to search for your own shot wasn’t a skill many players had off the bench. Guard Talen Horton-Tucker could do it occasionally, but he relied on attacking the basket too often.
Thomas is someone who isn’t afraid to shoot or draw contact, which is evident through his attempts per game. At 6’4″ and 210 pounds, he also has solid size for the type of guard the Lakers could use.
However, a major critique of Thomas’s game is his passing vision. He averages just 1.4 assists and turns the ball over 1.7 times a game. That’s substandard for a guard, and Thomas would need to spend a lot of time working on that aspect of his game.
Another interesting tidbit is Thomas recently withdrew from the NBA draft combine that began Monday. That could mean Thomas knows his name will be called in the first round, as withdrawing for a different reason could hurt his stock.
Thomas could also be a potential replacement at the guard position since Dennis Schroder, Alex Caruso and Horton-Tucker are all entering free agency this summer.
Horton-Tucker is restricted, and since the Lakers have little cap space, another team high on Horton-Tucker could force L.A. to let him walk instead.
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