Getty Some Lakers scouts expected the team to draft Omari Spellman instead of Mo Wagner in 2018.
As the Lakers prepare for who they will select with the No. 4 pick, a recent ESPN story depicts quite a scene in Los Angeles during last year’s NBA draft. ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported the team had two separate war rooms for the 2018 draft. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka were in one room while other front office executives and scouts were in another, per ESPN.
Another story took place on June 21, 2018, when Lakers staffers gathered at their practice facility for that year’s NBA draft. The Lakers had two “war rooms” set up inside their training facility: Johnson and Pelinka were in one; front-office executives, scouts and others who had helped evaluate prospects were in another, according to multiple team staffers present.
Not only were there two separate rooms, but there was also an expectation that Omari Spellman would be the pick for the Lakers if he was still on the board. Instead, Pelinka and Johnson opted to selected Mo Wagner after talking with Spellman’s former teammate Josh Hart. ESPN reported that scouts were “shocked” as they watched Wagner’s name called on the television broadcast.
As the Lakers neared their 25th pick in the first round, staff members in the second war room expected — and, according to one basketball operations staffer present, were excited — that they would select Villanova power forward Omari Spellman, who was the highest-ranked remaining player on the Lakers’ draft board, according to multiple team staffers present. Instead, the Lakers took Wagner, the forward from Michigan. Sources said that inside the second war room, scouts and other staff members watched the pick on television and were shocked.
Later, Pelinka told staffers he had heard negatives about Spellman and that he had discussed the issues with Lakers forward Josh Hart, who had played at Villanova before Spellman. Hart, he said, agreed there were concerns. Staffers were taken aback, and some said it represented another instance of a unilateral decision being made by Pelinka or Johnson without the involvement of key figures who would normally be central to the decision. “For him to covertly go to a player and go behind everybody’s else’s back, that’s the problem,” one coaching staff member said.
This was just one of several dysfunctional details centering around the Lakers front office that Holmes reported in his recent ESPN feature. With the Lakers possessing a top-five pick, it will be interesting to see how the team treats the draft process for 2019.
Another revelation was how divisive the presence of LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul, has become. Be sure to check out Heavy’s look at Paul’s relationship with the Lakers franchise.
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Rumors Link the Lakers to DeAndre Hunter & Darius Garland in the 2019 NBA Draft
The latest rumors link the Lakers to DeAndre Hunter and Darius Garland in the upcoming draft. Basketball Insiders’ Steve Kyler reported that the Lakers are high on Hunter or Garland at No. 4.
“The prevailing thought in NBA circles is DeAndre Hunter and Darius Garland [at No. 4],” Kyler tweeted.
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Lakers Draft Had 2 War Rooms With Lots of Drama in 2018