Report: Lakers to work out multiple prospects on Friday

Published by

Mike Battaglino

May 25, 2023 4:43 pm

The Los Angeles Lakers have quickly turned their attention to the 2023 NBA Draft and are about to start working out players they could take with the No. 17 and No. 47 picks they hold.

Kihei Clark and Adam Flagler are guards, and Chris Livingston, Lewis and DaRon Holmes II are forwards.

The Lakers could have multiple holes to fill in the backcourt if D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Lonnie Walker IV and Dennis Schroder sign elsewhere this offseason as free agents. Plus reserve guard Malik Beasley has a pending team option.

The Lakers will remain in win-now mode if LeBron James puts off a possible retirement and returns next season to again team with Anthony Davis at the head of the lineup. Los Angeles made a somewhat surprising run through the playoffs before it was swept by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals.

A young group of players including Reaves and forwards Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt could be augmented by an addition through the draft, especially at pick No. 17.

A post-lottery mock draft on ESPN by Jonathan Givony has the Lakers selecting University of Michigan swingman Jett Howard at No. 17 and Washington State University big man Mouhamed Gueye at No. 47.

Howard is the son of former NBA player and current Michigan coach Juwan Howard.

Among the players the Lakers are working out, Givony forecasts Miller (No. 21, Brooklyn Nets) and Lewis (No. 27, Charlotte Hornets) as first-round picks and Holmes as a second-round selection (No. 50, Oklahoma City Thunder). Clark, Livingston and Flagler were not among the 58 picks in the mock draft.

Givony said Miller had a very productive G League season as a 19-year-old, and at 6-foot-10 has good scoring instincts. Givony described Lewis as a “swing for the fences” pick with as much upside as downside in that draft neighborhood.

Clark, a California native who went to high school in Los Angeles, won a national championship with the University of Virginia in 2019, and Flagler did so with Baylor University in 2021.

The draft will be held June 22 at Barclays Center.

Mike Battaglino

Mike is a veteran journalist who has covered the NBA for almost three decades. He remembers the birth of "Showtime" and has always admired the star power the Lakers have brought to the game.