The NBA draft is less than a month away and reports have the LA Lakers looking at Jahlil Okafor as their number one target along with D'Angelo Russell, while the Minnesota Timberwolves are weighing whether to draft Karl-Anthony Towns or Okafor with the number one overall pick.
The Lakers made the jump to number two in the draft after finishing with the fourth worst record in the league and now they are in position to get Towns or Okafor. Most draft experts and scouts have Towns and Okafor as the top two players overall in the draft and that puts the Wolves in a tough spot. Minnesota has the number one pick after winning the lottery with the worst record and they do not want to pick the wrong player at number one.
Towns and Okafor both could end up as great players, but there is a chance one could be a bust and if that happens, the Wolves hope they get the future All-Star and not the player that fails. Both the Lakers and the Wolves are checking up on Okafor and Towns, but it will all depend on what the Wolves do at number one. According to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, the Lakers are looking at Okafor as the player they want and this comes as they are also working out players like D'Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay.
This time of year is tough when it comes to the media and draft prospects, as the Lakers have already been linked to Mudiay, Okafor, Towns and Russell as the player they "want the most." Chad Ford at ESPN wrote earlier in the offseason after the lottery that Okafor and Mudiay were the top players on the board for the Lakers. Other reports have the team looking hard at Russell, as Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com reports that some team execs think that he could go number one and the Lakers should take him at number two.
The Lakers do have a need at point guard and that plays into taking Mudiay or Russell, but Okafor and Towns are considered to be the best prospects with the best chance to be successful in the NBA in the eyes of most scouts. The prevailing wisdom is that the Lakers will take whoever is left over from the two of those players after the Wolves pick. Okafor came into the season as the presumptive number one overall pick, but Towns has seemingly overtaken him after his strong NCAA tournament performance.
Towns is looking like he will be the top pick, but the Timberwolves are not necessarily going to take him at number one over Okafor. According to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, Flip Saunders "really likes Okafor" and there is a chance that he could go number one. Okafor spoke with reports last week and said that he knows his defense needs to improve, but that is something that can be fixed once he is in the NBA. The Lakers draft will obviously be dictated by what the Wolves do, but the team has a chance to get either Towns or Okafor and they are guaranteed to get a top prospect at two.
