Marvin Bagley III can't wait to explode in the CSL
Heading into the 2022 CSL draft, the Los Angeles Lakers had Marvin Bagley III as their top target, with backup plans Jayson Tatum, DeAndre Ayton, and Frank Ntilikina all under consideration. Team insiders say the front office would have been conflicted on who to take had their man gone, but likely would have selected Ayton to allow the Brooklyn Nets to have Tatum.
Fortunately, the Nuggets took Tatum, and champagne popped off in the Lakers' war room. They had the one they wanted most. After the draft, GM Jestor was in Las Vegas in his offseason home and didn't get a chance to check their tape until returning to Los Angeles, whereupon he realized, "...Damn. The kid's even better than I remembered him being."
Lofty expectations on the 19 year old's shoulders, who comes in as the Purple and Gold's first-ever true franchise talent of the Jestor era, following years of bad lottery luck and the former NBA regime's mismanagement of the latter years of Kobe Bryant's career.
But like most young one and dones, the third Marvin Bagley comes in extremely raw, far removed from his glittering, All-CSL upside. And so it's with his selection that the team is veering away from a brief flirtation with pursuing top-flight free agents on max deals. In fact, some sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said it's possible the franchise will elect to largely stay out of the summer player rush, other than to re-sign Emmanuel Mudiay and Austin Rivers, the team's two restricted free agents, and ink bodies to round out the roster on one year deals.
"There's a lot of teams with cap this summer, and we're just at the beginning of the #Goldcess movement," explained one official. "So really, it makes sense for us to let everyone else fight it out for the best players while we sit back and continue rolling money over, picking up young talent and picks in the draft and trades, then find our spots."
The Small Trade
Darrun Hilliard might contend for a starting spot
The Lakers consumed $1.3 million of their cap space to land 27 year old to be Darrun Hilliard who is arriving from the CSL Champion Oklahoma City Thunder in a financial trade for the title-winners. Inked to a flat-rate contract for two more years, with the last a team option, Hilliard brings a veteran locker room presence who has some ability with the 3 ball, though he was a bit player in OKC's playoff run.
As the roster currently stands, the zone-breaker could make his way into the starting lineup at SG or SF, depending on what else the team does this summer. At the very least, he'll play a bench role at one or both spots to cut into Keifer Sykes' minutes.
Christian Wood Back After All
Not amused to return to LA: Christian Wood
Sources also tell us that due to the Lakers' decision to largely idle out free agency, injured Christian Wood, who turns 26 next season, will have his team option picked up after all. Last season saw the UNLV alum shoot a career-best 49.1% before going down with an MCL tear and as one person noted, "There's no sense in giving up a free asset when we're opting out of the summer. Quite a few teams were interested in him, and we're still getting repeated calls from one organization that really wants to bring him aboard."
The plan, should Wood still be in the City of Angels after his return from injury, is to have him anchor the center spot next to Bagley III before presumably finally escaping to a preferred destination next offseason. He's made his unhappiness with the organization clear ever since spurning the team's max offer and signing with the Memphis Grizzlies before being forced there anyway in the Kevin Durant trade.
Current Starting Lineup Projection
PG Emmanuel Mudiay (23)
SG Austin Rivers (25)
SF Darrun Hilliard (27)
PF Marvin Bagley III (19)
CE Cheick Diallo (22)/Christian Wood (26) after healing, should he still be a Laker
The lineup will still be quite young and with their first round pick and 3 second round selections in 2023, their own first and second round selections and the Pacers 1st round pick in 2024, the Purple and Gold have the ability to maintain considerable cap space until the end of Bagley's rookie contract - Wood, Keifer Sykes, and Jon Leuer will all be off the books at the end of Bagley's third year, meaning the only currently projected major contracts slated to be on the roster are Mudiay and Rivers' post-RFA deals.
Once the team finally committed to a true rebuild after flip-flopping the first several years in the league, Jestor quickly assembled them into a very attractive Goldcess position with a future franchise star, a surprise career recovery in Mudiay, a second round steal in Diallo, a free young talent in Rivers, and a glut of picks to keep the payroll down, the roster young.
