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June 26, 2006
Draft doings
We're in the process of redoing our blogs, so I'm hoping this eventually will be filed under "Inside the NBA" instead of "Inside the NBA playoffs,'' which ended nearly two months ago for the Lakers.
The Lakers had a half-hour session Monday with general manager Mitch Kupchak for the beat writers and TV types. The highlights will be in Tuesday's paper, but I wanted to include some extras for the blog.
In addition to the No. 26 pick in the first round, the Lakers will have the No. 51 pick in the second round. Kupchak suggested the Lakers would take a European player, who would stay overseas another year with the Lakers retaining his rights.
The Lakers already have 12 players under contract for next season, counting their soon-to-be first-round pick. They figure to bring Von Wafer and Devin Green to training camp. And they have free agency to consider. The NBA roster limit is 15. So drafting a European player in the second round makes a lot of sense.
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We also learned that the new Development League team will be called the L.A. D-Fenders. (Sorry L.A. Buss fans) The team will play either before or after Lakers games at Staples Center. There will probably be tickets available for fans to come to just the D-League game.
It will be an interesting arrangement because any NBA team can call up players from the D-League team the Lakers are owning and operating. Just imagine the Kings signing the D-Fenders' best player to a 10-day contract.
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Kupchak was asked about moving up in the draft. It seems to be possible as he said several teams were looking to move out of the first round entirely. But he did not think it was likely.
"Everybody wants to move up,'' Kupchak said. "There's a cost associated with moving up, whether it's a player or another pick. At the end of the day, it doesn't happen very frequently."
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The Lakers are one of the NBA teams that doesn't make public which players it works out. Needless to say, the team also doesn't invite reporters down to interview the players after workouts.
Apparently, they do make the players sign in with security the same way they do the writers. I can report the names ahead of mine today included Mardy Collins, P.J. Tucker, Ryan Hollins and Marcus Slaughter.
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Kupchak was asked about how different the draft was with the NBA's new age limit keeping out high school players. He did not hesitate in saying it was a good thing, though he was impressed with the Class of 2006.
"I would say that five or six of those guys, if they were in the draft this year, they would have been first-round picks."
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Kupchak said the Lakers had identified the top 60 players in the draft and would rank them from top to bottom Tuesday.
Posted by Ross Siler at June 26, 2006 07:47 PM
Comments
Kupchak needs to be fired!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Martin at June 29, 2006 12:01 AM