Luck wasn't on the Lakers' side at the NBA draft lottery. Instead of shooting up the draft board and into the top three, they dropped one spot to No. 7, prompting fans and team brass to bid premature farewells to Andrew Wiggins, Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker and even Dante Exum.
Many saw Los Angeles' lottery-night excursion to be a failure, a disappointment. And it was. All along, the hope was something amazing would happen. Odds, smodds. The Lakers could win the lottery, or at the very least vault into the top three.
Sadly, they didn't. Which stinks. Yet all hope isn't lost. Which is awesome.
Draft classes don't get much deeper than this one. Not since 2003, anyway. Values can be had throughout the lottery, not just in the top three or five. The Lakers are in position to snatch one of those impact players if they retain their pick, something they're likely to do.
Selecting seventh gives them more than enough opportunity to land someone special. History is littered with success stories from those picked seventh. Ask Stephen Curry. Or Luol Deng. Greg Monroe will tell you too, as will many others.
Thrown outside the top three, it's all about drafting for fit and need now, about finding the right player to advance rebuilding efforts. They can still do that, all while continuing to hope that Luck will decide to be a Laker on draft night.
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Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
