The Los Angeles Lakers entered Tuesday night with one pick, a clear need and a long list of mock-draft suitors at center. They zigged anyway. Rather than wait at No. 25 for one of the big men tied to them all spring, the Lakers moved up a spot, acquiring the No. 24 pick from the New York Knicks, and used it on Baylor wing Cameron Carr.
The choice answered a different question than the one most expected. For weeks the Lakers were linked almost exclusively to frontcourt help, with the draft viewed as the cleanest path to the rim-running center Luka Doncic has wanted. Instead, the front office prioritized shooting and wing size, betting that a ready-made perimeter player was worth more to this roster than a developmental big.
Why a center was the expected pick
The frontcourt has been the Lakers’ clearest hole all offseason. Doncic has made an elite center a priority, and rival front offices expected Los Angeles to spend this pick on a big man. Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes remain on the roster, but neither settled the position, and the names mocked to the Lakers — from Jayden Quaintance to Tarris Reed Jr. to Henri Veesaar — all addressed the same need.
By going with Carr, the Lakers have effectively pushed the center search entirely onto free agency and the trade market, both of which open in earnest when the new league year begins June 30. Walker Kessler, Jalen Duren, Mitchell Robinson and Robert Williams III are among the bigs Los Angeles has been tied to, and one of them now looms as a more pressing target than ever.
Who is Cameron Carr?
Carr is a 21-year-old wing who measured 6-foot-4½ and 184 pounds with a 7-foot-0¾ wingspan, the kind of length-to-height ratio NBA teams covet on the perimeter. His road to the first round was not a straight line. He spent his first two college seasons at Tennessee, where an inconsistent freshman year gave way to a sophomore campaign cut short by a thumb injury and a medical redshirt, before he transferred to Baylor and broke out.
The breakout was emphatic. Carr averaged 18.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 blocks per game on 49.4 percent shooting, 37.4 percent from 3-point range and 80.1 percent from the free-throw line, ranking fourth in the Big 12 in scoring and earning Third-Team All-Big 12 honors.
He led Baylor in blocks with 45 and set a single-season program scoring record for a sophomore. His draft stock climbed further at the Combine, where a standout scrimmage performance moved him firmly into first-round consideration.
How he fits next to Luka Doncic
Carr projects as a 3-and-D wing with secondary scoring upside, an archetype that fits cleanly around two ball-dominant creators in Doncic and Austin Reaves. He hits catch-and-shoot looks with a quick release, finishes well above the rim and uses his length to defend multiple positions and protect the rim from the wing, ranking among the better wing shot-blockers in the country last season. Scouts have compared his profile to players such as Devin Vassell and Trey Murphy III.
There is developmental work ahead. Carr’s handle is still rounding into form, his frame needs strength at 184 pounds, and his in-between game lagged behind his catch-and-shoot efficiency, which caps his ceiling as a self-creator for now. The appeal is that the productive parts of his game — spacing, straight-line drives, cuts and putbacks, and defensive playmaking — require very few touches to translate, making him a candidate for rotation minutes sooner than most picks in this range.
His college coach was effusive about the tools.
“When it’s cooking, it’s fun to watch,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “… He’s very skilled, as athletic as any player that we’ve had here.”
A Lakers full-circle note
There is a fitting wrinkle to the pick for Los Angeles. Carr’s father, Chris Carr, finished runner-up to Kobe Bryant in the 1997 NBA Slam Dunk Contest and went on to play six seasons in the NBA. Nearly three decades later, his son begins his professional career in the same purple and gold.
The pick is only the first move in what projects to be a defining Lakers offseason. With the center need now resting on free agency and the futures of LeBron James and Reaves still unresolved, Tuesday answered one question while sharpening the next.
