Weak draft record

The draft is a week from tonight, and now is as good a time as any to look back at the Lakers' poor record over the last 10 years. Their five championships in the 2000s have come with a steep price in that their draft picks have been non-contributors for the most part. Only one, center Andrew Bynum in 2005, is a starter for the Lakers. Another, center Marc Gasol in 2007, is starter for the Memphis Grizzlies and was a key part of the deal that brought Pau Gasol from Memphis to the Lakers in a Feb. 1, 2008 trade.

Otherwise, it's a pretty lackluster group, and it's not likely to get much better with the Lakers holding four second-round picks next Thursday. They don't have a first-round pick for the second consecutive year. Their picks are Nos. 41, 46, 56 and 58 overall.

Here's a look at the Lakers' draft picks since 2001:

2001: No picks.
2002: Chris Jefferies (first round, Fresno State).
2003: Brian Cook (first round, Illinois), Luke Walton (second round, Arizona).
2004: Sasha Vujacic (first round, Slovenia), Marcus Douthit (second round, Providence).
2005: Andrew Bynum (first round, St. Joseph High School [Metuchen, N.J.]), Ronny Turiaf (second round, Gonzaga), Von Wafer (second round, Florida State).
2006: Jordan Farmar (first round, UCLA), Cheick Samb (second round, Senegal).
2007: Javaris Crittenton (first round, Georgia Tech), Sun Yue (second round, China), Marc Gasol (second round, Spain).
2008: Joe Crawford (second round, Kentucky).
2009: Toney Douglas (first round, Florida State), Patrick Beverley (second round, Arkansas), Chinemelu Elonu (second round, Texas A&M).
2010: Devin Ebanks (second round, West Virginia), Derrick Caracter (second round, UTEP).

The 2005 draft was easily the Lakers' best, with Bynum and Turiaf playing important roles on the 2007-08 team that advanced to the NBA Finals and Wafer finding some modest success with the Houston Rockets after leaving the Lakers.