Los Angeles Lakers: 2018 NBA Draft checklist for potential selections
By Jason Reed
1. Rim protection/Interior defense
With Brook Lopez set to hit the open market and Julius Randle being a restricted free agent this summer, the Los Angeles Lakers are going to need some help down low. Ivica Zubac and Thomas Bryant could potentially help, but neither of which are reliable enough to depend on as early as 2018.
Even with Lopez and Randle the Los Angeles Lakers struggled down low. While the team excelled in rebounding (ranked second in the NBA in rebounds) the Lakers were middle of the pack in blocks (17th).
The lack of interior defense was the Lakers’ biggest Achilles’ Heel last season. Despite posting good rebounding numbers, the Lakers allowed the most points in the paint last season (49.0 per game). This was obviously a huge factor why the Lakers allowed the fifth-most, 109.6 points per game, last season.
Los Angeles could actually look to improve in this regard without Lopez. While Lopez has been a fine scorer in his NBA career, he has always lacked the interior defending that is required in an elite center in today’s NBA.
The one problem is that the Lakers likely won’t have any potential selections with the 25th overall pick that add this dynamic as well as warrant the selection. Some potential selections are:
- Bonzie Colson — Notre Dame
- Brandon McCoy — UNLV
- Chimezie Metu — USC
- Mitchell Robinson — N/A
Robinson is arguably the only guy from that list that warrants a first-round pick and even he is a question mark without any college experience. Thus, the Lakers may turn to the second round to fill this need.