NBA Draft: Lakers Guard Heavy With First Two Picks In Second Round

The Lakers had four second-round picks in Thursday night's NBA Draft. They went guard heavy with their first two selections, perhaps to help offset the potential loss of Shannon Brown, who is not expected to exercise his $2.4 million option to return. Chad Ford of ESPN gave the Lakers a draft grade of C+. Here is a recap of their draft:

No. 41: Guard Darius Morris, Michigan

Ford said, "If coach Mike Brown can get him to defend his position and improve his jumper, we could remember him as a draft night steal down the road," but that seems easier said than done.

No. 46: Guard Andrew Goudelock, College of Charleston

Goudelock is a solid three-point shooter (41.3% from distance in four years in college) and the all-time leading scorer in Charleston, who Ben Rosales of Silver Screen and Roll called "a poor man's Jimmer [Fredette]."

No. 56: Forward Chukwudiebere Maduabum

Maduabum played last season with the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Developmental League. This pick was traded to Denver for a future second round pick.

No. 58: Forward Ater Majok

Majok, who played a year at UConn and a year in Australia, and is a real long shot to become a Laker. Watch him shoot against cones!

For more news and information on the Lakers, be sure to read the SB Nation blog Silver Screen and Roll.

Laker fans had low expectations for the organization's last two picks in Thursday night's draft, and the front office didn't disappoint. With the 56th selection, they grabbed Chukwudiebere Maduabum. What's that? You haven't heard of him? Neither had Jeff Van Gundy, part of ESPN's draft commentary team, or upwards of 99 percent of everyone watching.

Maduabum is a 6'9" Nigerian who late last season was signed by the Bakersfield Jam of the D League. He appeared in just three games and played a total of 20 minutes, making him surely one of the most obscure prospects ever to hear his name called on draft night. Amazingly, Scott Schroder of SBN site Ridiculous Upside dug up some scouting intel on the kid, which though worth a read won't have any direct relevance for Laker fans, since the organization quickly dealt his rights to the Denver Nuggets. In return, the Lakers will get a future second-round pick. It's not yet clear what conditions are attached to it.

Slightly more interesting is Ater Majok, whom the Lakers took with the 58th pick. Originally from Sudan, Majok was a highly touted big-man recruit in 2008. He chose UConn over UCLA and Kentucky but had to sit out the 2008-09 season because of eligibility issues. In 2009-10 he started 22 games but left UConn the next year and has since been playing in Turkey and Australia. Pretty much no one expected him to be taken in this year's draft.

The Lakers will let him keep working overseas and wait for him to develop into a credible prospect. Although he has good size at 6'10", he's extremely raw in almost every respect. At UConn he shot only 42 percent, and according to Draft Express he "lacks a great deal of strength, balance and coordination, and possesses very little in the ways of experience or feel for the game." In other words, don't expect to see him in a Laker uniform soon, if ever.

In David Lighty of Ohio State and Ben Hansbrough of Notre Dame, there were a couple potentially useful perimeter guys still on the board at 58 whom the Lakers could have selected. But having picked Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock earlier in the round, they apparently felt it wasn't worth crowding the backcourt even further.

With the first two of their four second-round picks in the 2011 NBA Draft, the Lakers went guard heavy. Perhaps this is in response to general Mitch Kupchack's thoughts earlier tonight that Shannon Brown likely won't exercise his option to return next season. Call it a contingency plan, but the Lakers selected guards Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock with their first two picks.

Morris, picked at No. 41, is a 6-foot-4 point guard out of Michigan who played his high school ball at nearby Winward High School. Morris averaged 15.0 points, 6.7 assists, and 4.0 rebounds as a sophomore last season with the Wolverines. Morris called himself "a true point guard" in an interview last month with Draft Express:

With their No. 46 pick, the Lakers picked Goudelock, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound guard out of the College of Charleston. Goudelock's biggest attribute appears to be his shooting, as he shot 41.3% from three-point range in four years in Charleston. He averaged 23.7 points per game as a senior, won the Southern Conference Player of the Year, and became the school's all-time leading scorer last season/

Goudelock, per his Twitter feed, feels he should have been picked higher than .... overall:

same old story, ppl pass on me and i gotta prove them wrong...#life

For more news and information on the Lakers, be sure to read the SB Nation blog Silver Screen and Roll.

The Lakers, it seems, are determined at least to explore the possibility of making a major move before tomorrow night's draft. Earlier today, the LA Times reported that the team offered Lamar Odom to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the number-two pick with the hope of drafting Derrick Williams of Arizona. David Kahn politely declined, so now the Lakers have shifted their attention to an even sexier target: Andre Iguodala of the 76ers.

Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated reports that the Lakers and Sixers have had recent discussions about an Odom-for-Iggy swap. Philly would love to be free of Iguodala's lavish contract, which will pay him more than $44 million over the next three seasons. Odom is at the peak of his talents and has only one more guaranteed year left on his deal, so from the Sixers' perspective, the swap would both bring back a valuable piece and provide payroll flexibility in the future.

And Iguodala would be a pretty decent fit for the Lake Show. At age 27, he's young relative to the current roster. He's a terrific defender and all-around athlete. His offensive game has some dynamism and creativity. No one in Lakerdom is anxious to see Odom leave, but Iggy's the high-level talent that could justify parting with a player of LO's caliber. And for what it's worth, he and Kobe Bryant are very tight.

To make the deal work under the league's salary rules, the Lakers would have to include someone else in the trade. Amick suggests that Ron Artest could be the guy. In other words, the Lakers could end up dealing two rotation players for one, a blow to depth to a team that doesn't have much to begin with.

No one said getting back to the top would be easy.

Not for several years has draft night offered quality thrills for Laker fans. The team hasn’t picked in the top 10 since 2005 or in the top 20 since 2007. The Pau Gasol trade in early 2008 ushered in a WIN BANNERZ NAO philosophy that deprioritized the development of young talent. As a result, four years’ worth of Laker first-round picks, stretching from the 2008 draft through the 2011 draft this Thursday night, have been traded or sold off. Sometimes, as in the Gasol acquisition, the returns have more than justified the cost. On other occasions, as when the Lakers sold Toney Douglas to the Knicks, they’ve committed crimes of penny-wisdom and pound-foolishness.

Their draft position this year is strikingly skewed toward quantity over quality. The Lakers have four picks at their disposal, but all are of the dollar-menu variety. In addition to “their own” pick, 56th in the draft, they hold the 41st, 46th and 58th picks as leftover detritus from old trades. So Mitch Kupchak will be fishing in depleted waters. If he gets lucky, maybe he snags something edible. More likely, he reels in twigs and the odd tire. (Hopefully no actual corpses.)

It’s not crazy to hope that someone useful slips down into the forties. Devin Ebanks was the 43rd pick last year, and though he didn’t show much in his rookie season, he’s not a total write-off yet. And Marc Gasol was the 48th pick in 2007, so hey – you never know. But he and other famous second-round finds (Trevor Ariza, Mo Williams, Luis Scola) are the exceptions that prove the rule. Odds are, most of the guys Mitch drafts on Thursday will be fringy training-camp invites or prospects to stash in Europe and see whether and how they develop.

If the Lakers do sign one of their draftees with the aim of giving him minutes as a rookie, it’ll likely be because he fills a discrete need. They’re not going to find a point guard to displace Derek Fisher (or even a backup to displace Steve Blake), but a three-point specialist would be a handy addition to the backcourt. Someone like Ben Hansbrough of Notre Dame or David Lighty of Ohio State could fill that role. Alternatively the Lakers could look for a defensive big man, a body to spell Pau Gasol on those days when Andrew Bynum is hurt or suspended. Keith Benson of Oakland is a candidate if Mitch is thinking along these lines.

Otherwise, Operation BPA – Best Player Available – is in effect. Especially when you’re choosing among longshots, it doesn’t pay to get overly hung up on specific needs. And the “project” label shouldn’t scare you off, since pretty much everyone available at that point will fall into that category.

For Laker fans, blue-chippers are off the menu until 2012… assuming the team doesn’t trade away its first-round pick again.

Follow Dex on Twitter @dexterfishmore. For a comprehensive scouting look at prospects the Lakers might have in their crosshairs, check out this draft preview over at Silver Screen and Roll.

With the 2011 NBA Draft coming on Thursday, the trade rumors are percolating and about to reach a boiling point. For the Lakers, that means potentially trading Pau Gasol to Minnesota for Kevin Love, the number two pick in the draft, or both. However, the Lakers' power forward said on Tuesday that he wishes to remain in Los Angeles.

The talk of Gasol to the Timberwolves has gained a bit of steam in the last few days, though the two sides aren't anywhere close to a deal. Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld details the scenario, which basically involves Minnesota GM David Kahn wanting to pair up the Spaniard with his countryman Ricky Rubio, who will join the T-Wolves next season. However, the two sides are far apart because the Lakers want both Love and the number two pick (perhaps L.A. native Derrick Williams) for Gasol, while Minnesota thinks the number two pick and "filler" will get a deal done.

For his part, Gasol wants no part of a trade. "My desire is to stay with the Lakers. I don’t have control over it but I want to stay with the Lakers for as many years as I can to be able to remain eligible for the maximum possible championships," Gasol told reporters, according to Slam. Gasol has three years remaining on his contract, which will pay him $18,714,150 next season.

For more news and information on the Lakers, be sure to read the SB Nation blog Silver Screen and Roll.