The Los Angeles Lakers lucked out to earn the No. 2 draft pick and now must decide the best direction to take with it. According to ESPN's Chad Ford, the Lakers are favored to draft either Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns depending on who the Minnesota Timberwolves select No.1 overall. Los Angeles is making sure they do all of their homework on pre-draft prospects including Emmanuel Mudiay who is requesting to do No.2 to the Lakers.
The Lakers need a point guard and could either select a rookie in the draft or use their large amount of available salary cap space on a marquee veteran. Janis Carr of the Orange County Register, Mudiay loved his visit with the Lakers and is hopeful he did enough to convince general manager Mitch Kupchak to select him in the first round. According to Carr, Mudiay saw all of the championship trophies and wanted to keep up with the winning tradition.
"It made me want to get some," Mudiay said, via the Register. "I wasn't in awe (coming into the training facility) because it is a great franchise. I would love to be a part of something like this. I just want to win and get as many championships as I can. That's the main thing."
Mudiay is considered a top five draft pick, but only the No.2 point guard on the board behind D'Angelo Russell according to most mock drafts. He has the abilities to really lift the Lakers' offense after averaging 17.7 points and 5.1 assists while playing in China. He also has more defensive abilities than the typical point guard. The issue is that drafting Mudiay would make the Lakers' point guard rotation very young. The team benefitted from the success of Jordan Clarkson in his rookie season, but adding Mudiay would give the team no veteran presence.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Lakers are still in the mix to sign Rajon Rondo despite the dramatic ending to his 2014-15 season. The Lakers are also hoping to get a chance to sign Goran Dragic if he were to depart from the Miami Heat. The one-two punch of Mudiay and Clarkson could be productive for the Lakers, but having a veteran like Steve Nash was supposed to be. With Julius Randle returning, the starting lineup for the Lakers could end up being very young and someone like Rondo or Dragic could be the better roster addition.
