The Lakers<\/a> will seek to use their 25th pick in Tuesday\u2019s first round of the NBA draft on a player who fills a need on a roster that could have up to nine free agents this summer. Yet the Lakers also are aware that picking that late in the round could leave them selecting the best player available.<\/p>\n They probably will be in search of a center who can be a lob threat or an athletic wing who can play defense and knock down three-pointers, two positions the Lakers crave as they try to build a team around star Luka Doncic<\/a> that fits best with his style of play.<\/p>\n Names that NBA executives and mock drafts attached to the Lakers are Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance<\/a>, Texas forward Dailyn Swain<\/a> and Duke wing Isaiah Evans<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Lakers spent time in Spain looking at 20-year-old guard Sergio de Larrea<\/a>, but many NBA scouts see him going later in the first round or even in the second. According to people not authorized to speak publicly, the Lakers were impressed by their workout with Purdue point guard Braden Smith<\/a>. But he\u2019s on the smaller side (6 feet) and played four years in college, leading scouts to believe his upside is not that high and that he\u2019ll be drafted in the second round.<\/p>\n The Lakers don\u2019t have a pick in Wednesday\u2019s second round.<\/p>\n After the Lakers were swept by a deep and athletic Oklahoma City team in the second round of the playoffs, president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka outlined what it takes when trying to compete in the uber-tough Western Conference against the likes of the Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs, who became the second-youngest team to reach the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n Pelinka looked at how Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell was drafted in the second round and how he flourished in just his second season, especially in the playoffs, in which he averaged 15.1 points and 4.3 assists in 11 games.<\/p>\n \u201cDepth is really important, athleticism and youth. We have a lot of components of that on our roster, but we need to add to it,\u201d Pelinka said last month during his exit interview with the media. \u201cI think those are some of the key North Stars that we need to look at.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the players that they had who played really well, Ajay Mitchell, they got in the second round. So there\u2019s ways to add to your roster if you commit to doing the hard work and commit to the process of adding the right pieces. \u2026 We\u2019ll be doing that through the draft and free agency and through trades. We\u2019ve gotta find a way to have a roster that will compete with any team in the NBA. That\u2019s what we do here.\u201d<\/p>\n The Lakers do have three tradable first-round picks \u2014 2026, 2031 and 2033 \u2014 but the latter two can\u2019t be moved until after the draft.<\/p>\n Lakers star LeBron James is an unrestricted free agent and is looking for a deal from the Lakers, while Austin Reaves is expected to opt out of his $14.8-million deal so he can sign a contract with them for up to five years and about $241 million.<\/p>\n Still, the Lakers have to proceed with the draft to find a player.<\/p>\n Texas forward Dailyn Swain, left, vies for a loose ball against Purdue guard Braden Smith during an NCAA tournament game in March.<\/p>\n (Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n Swain (6-7) and Evans (6-6) are the kind of athletic wings the Lakers could use, but both might be chosen before the Lakers make their pick.<\/p>\n The 6-9 Quaintance could slide to the Lakers because of health concerns. He played in only four games last season at Kentucky because the team was being cautious following knee surgery after he tore an anterior cruciate ligament when he played at Arizona State.<\/p>\n Scouts still view him as mobile, athletic and young enough \u2014 he turns 19 next month \u2014 to develop. But, Quaintance will need to rehab his knee and probably won\u2019t be ready for the upcoming season. When healthy, scouts said, he can be the lob threat and defender that Doncic yearns to have. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n The Lakers will seek to use their 25th pick in Tuesday\u2019s first round of the NBA draft on a player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_animmysite_disable_animation":false,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/7fbfea4\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3600x1890+0+255\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F8f%2F66%2F8cc4ffc949d09b873ac29e396d2a%2Fkentucky-alabama-basketball-15591.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[212],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Texas](\"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8ec91cb\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/7394x4929+0+0\/resize\/320x213!\/format\/webp\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Faf%2F98%2Fb9430db344f5be72d852fdbc3716%2Fncaa-texas-purdue-basketball-5327.jpg "\\"\\"")
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