The Los Angeles Lakers will have the opportunity to add young talent to their roster in an inexpensive way in the 2023 NBA draft.
Fans are focusing most of their attention on the fact the Lakers will have the No. 17 pick in this year’s draft. That pick has the potential to yield a serviceable player, if not a good player, for the team.
But Los Angeles also has the No. 47 selection in the draft, and the team has had some success finding gems late in the draft in recent years.
One prospect they have brought in for a workout that they could use that pick on is Adam Flagler, a guard from Baylor University.
Flagler could fill a big need for the Lakers
Flagler is 6 feet, 3 inches and just 185 pounds. In basketball jargon, he’s considered a tweener. He isn’t tall enough to play shooting guard, but he isn’t a good enough ballhandler or playmaker to be a true point guard.
He is a decent athlete, but not a very good one, and while he isn’t a terrible defender, he isn’t an above-average one either.
However, the one thing Flagler does well is shoot, and it’s a skill that makes him stand out.
In his last three seasons at Baylor, he hit 40.2% on 5.5 attempts per game from 3-point range, and he averaged 15.6 points a game this past season. He also dished 4.6 assists per contest this year, showing his ability to be a supplementary playmaker, as well as 1.2 steals per contest.
Flagler won an NCAA championship with Baylor in 2021, so he has experience playing in big games, and at age 23, he’s an older, more developed prospect. He’s projected to be a second-round pick, and the Lakers have preferred to take more experienced college players in the second round over the years.
They still need plenty more 3-point shooting to get over the hump and win it all, and perhaps Flagler could help right away as a 3-point specialist off the bench.
