The Los Angeles Lakers have a need for wings with length who are dependable 3-point shooters and, ideally, can defend at a high level. Such players seem to be the lifeblood of the modern NBA, despite some newfound talk that newly minted finals MVP Nikola Jokic is going to tilt its positional bias back to the center spot.
Los Angeles will have the No. 17 and No. 47 picks in the upcoming 2023 NBA Draft, which will give it an opportunity to net two reliable players on team-friendly rookie contracts. In addition, there will be some undrafted free agents for it to choose from, and perhaps it could find another diamond in the rough within that group, just as it did with Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves.
One player in this year’s draft class who could go undrafted but has some potential is JT Shumate from the University of Toledo.
Shumate can shoot and possibly also defend at the NBA level
At 6 feet, 7 inches and 210 pounds, Shumate will likely end up playing the small forward position in the NBA. He’s an outstanding 3-point shooter who converted 40.7 percent of his attempts from downtown this past season and 48.2 percent of such attempts the year prior.
His volume of 3-point shots is also decent, if not very high, as he averaged 3.5 attempts from beyond the arc in his three years at Toledo.
In college, Shumate also showed some ability to score in the post and off the dribble, but he doesn’t appear to be anything special in either area. Overall, he averaged 16 points a game on 53.8% shooting during the 2022-23 campaign.
Defensively, he was a shot-blocking threat, having averaged 1.3 rejections a game for his college career. But Toledo often played him at the 5, a position he will almost certainly never play in the NBA.
He may have some potential as a shot-blocker in help situations, but he will have to defend wings positionally at the next level rather than depend on blocking shots.
Shumate could be an option for the Lakers to develop in the G League.
