What If The Lakers Buy Into The 2nd Round?

The new CBA rules make it tougher for teams to acquire talent. The Lakers used to take advantage of the idea of unlimited veteran minimum contracts to fill out a roster right up to a luxury tax. Nowadays, there are 1st apron and 2nd apron limits with restrictions I don’t fully comprehend.

If there’s one way to acquire talent as an extension of the roster, it’s acquiring a 2nd round talent at a veteran minimum contract, or consider two-way contracts. Two-way players do not count against the cap and the Coachella Valley Lakers can be looked at as a place to develop rarer NBA archetypes that were once more easily attainable.

Fortunately, the center position of the 2026 NBA draft is deep. It wasn’t that long ago when teams could fill up rosters with a JaVale McGee, DeMarcus Cousins, Dwight Howard, and other experienced centers in bench roles with two-way talent.

Now, they need to be found in the draft.

I mentioned in the previous post that there’s a list of 2nd round types. That list included Matt Able, who decided to return to North Carolina, Ugonna Onyenso, Baba Miller, Izaiyah Nelson, Ernest Udeh Jr., and Trevon Brazile.

This post will include a brief summary of each player.

Onyenso measured at 6’11” without shoes, with a 7’4.75” wingspan, 9’5” standing reach, at 236.8 lbs. at the NBA Pre-Draft Combine. He’s a former University of Virginia player (ties to Tony Bennett much?) with a 17.4% block rate. While he’s intriguing considering his length an obnoxiously high block rate that translates to 6.3 blocks per-40., I have concerns that it may not all be translatable. He’s not a super high vertical athlete, but a limited load, quick leaper that gets blocked shots with timing right at the rim, or right at the release point of shots. That verticality unfortunately shows with his lob finishing, where there’s a limited opportunity since he needs the passes right at the rim. The good news is, his foul rate is 2.7 per-40 and while still getting over 10.5rpg per-40., but this screams more productivity than potential into the NBA.

If there was a Dylan Cardwell in this draft, I think it’s him. Cardwell was a clearer prospect to me in terms of two-way play as a back up bigman, but he’s important to making winning plays. Onyenso can do the same.

Baba Miller measured at 6’10.5” without shoes, with a 7’1.75” wingspan, 9’3 standing reach, at 208.2 lbs. at the Pre-Draft Combine. What makes him different is he’s a skill, face-up big. He’s comfortable handling the basketball in the halfcourt, being put in different positions on the floor, making drive and dump-off passes in the paint, while being a good athlete at his size. He’s no lottery-level Lamar Odom skilled, but he is the archetype that’s easy to imagine being a good match up against players like Chet Holmgren.

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Players at this size with that level of guard skill can do multiple things in the halfcourt. During the combine, he showed he could be a dribble hand-off big and attack off-the-dribble, change directions off-the-dribble, attack closeouts, shoot spot up threes with relative comfort, grab-and-go, and just be a constant rim threat without having to dominate the basketball.

Statistically, he’s a good scoring threat. He took over 4.5 shots at the rim last year, shot .715 at close 2 range, nearly averaged 2 dunks a game, .417 from long 2 on just over 2.5 attempts per game from that range, with a free throw rate of .532.

He struggles with longer distance shooting through, and there isn’t as much indication that it’ll improve. Last year he was a 65.8% free throw shooter, and shot just 19.2% behind the arc on roughly 1.5 attempts per game.

For what it’s worth, he’s still a lot more of an offensive threat than Jarred Vanderbilt and I believe that his 3-point shot is better than what the percentage indicates. It may not ever be 40% behind the arc., but it is a good sign that he’s a .417 shooter from long 2 range. In the end, it’s a rim threat that likes to slash, finish, and is capable of making simple decisions with good processing without needing a high frequency of usage.

Izaiyah Nelson is a player that measured 6’9” in shoes, 7’3” wingspan, 9’0.5” standing reach at 219lbs. He has a little bit of a dunk packaging when finishing around the hoop, but I can’t shake the idea that he’s a big wing or a power forward playing center.

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However, there’s an advantage to being at that size and playing center. First of all, he’s a productive center.

The advanced stats across the board look legit:

.612 TS | .578FTr | .725FT | 14.5% Oreb | 21.3% Dreb | 17.8% TReb | 3.3 Stl% | 5.7% Blk%

The translation of that given his shot attempts and transition-like style of play is:

23.3 points, 14.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 2.4 steals, and 2.1 blocks per-40.

The footage above shows his comfort with switches, defending guards, and attacking the ball-handler by poking at the basketball. He’s able to hard hedge, hedge at the level, or just switch in pick-and-roll coverages. The idea here is, Luka playing alongside former teammate Dwight Powell, another power forward that ended up playing center and was a good lob threat, rebounder, and decent rim protector for his size.

Ernest Udeh Jr. measured at 6’10.75” with shoes, with a 7’4.5” wingspan, a 9’3” standing reach at 262 lbs. Of the players on this list, he’s the second best lob threat.

Unlike Onyenso, Nelson, and Miller, Udeh Jr., is capable of getting his elbows to the rim. This not only helps with the height of the pass, but also buys extra time on the horizontal plane at rim level.

Specific advanced stats show out in his case; a

.680TS | .711 free throw rate (.830 career) | 13.1% Oreb | 25.8% DReb |19.5% TReb | 2.1 Stl%, | 5.8% Blk%.

Now, his per-40 doesn’t stand out as brightly. Those advanced stats read as just a lob finisher and power rebounder. Per-40, it translate into 9.5 points per game, 13.1 rebounds per game, 1.5 steals per game, and 2 blocks per game on 3.4 fouls.

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In short, he’s a lob threat, a rebounder capable of verticality and some degree of rim protection. Projecting to the NBA level may be difficult even with his clear skill set. Even if the blocked shots aren’t there, there needs to be proven ability of rim deterrence with verticality. This would be a fine third big on an NBA roster or developmental player on the Coachella Valley Lakers.

Travon Brazile measured at 6’9.5” without shoes, with a 7’3.75” wingspan, a 9’1” standing reach, at 225.6 lbs at the NBA Draft Combine. These would be impressive numbers for a higher end power forward and lower end center. What has me excited about him is the NBA archetypes that he resembles, both in Obi Toppin and Jaxson Hayes.

He’s the best lob threat in the post with a 12th floor reach; two feet, one foot, off the toes, it doesn’t seem to matter. He can absolutely get the ball in mid-air. Like Adou Theiro, he’s absolutely real bounce.

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The good news is he has otherworldly athleticism. Hypothetically, he’d be a good switch defender, but the consistency isn’t there yet.

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In several clips, it shows he gets beat a few times. He doesn’t always have great defensive posture as soon as his opponent receives the ball. It’s always catch and then his feet get set. The smart offensive players attack right away and get an advantage, and at the NCAA level, he gets beat, and has the athletic ability to recover and challenge or block the shot. But that lack of discipline is part of why he isn’t perceived as a 1st round pick. It’s been perceived as “lack of motor.” Really, it’s “lack of high level engagement.” It’s as if the rest of his own team is on the same wavelength reacting to the ball, and he’s a touch behind.

The flip side of this is, the same video shows when he is engaged, he absolutely gets stops and forces tough shots. This is a player I’d love to see on the Coachella Lakers.

He fits the fever dream projection of what I want for the Laker team; Luka Doncic surrounded by lob threats and 3-point shooters.

Did I mention he shoots 3’s too?

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Through his five years at Arkansas, he shot 35% behind the arc on 2.5 attempts per game. There isn’t as much optimism in the sustainability of that percentage, because he’s not a great long 2-percentage shooter, and his free throw percentage has hovered into the high 60% to low 70%.

Considering he’s a high-flying lob threat and considered a spacing big, maybe you’d think the free throw rate would be great, but it isn’t. It has hovered around .376 throughout his NCAA tenure.

That makes several categories that haven’t really shown improvement;, FT%, 3pt%, FTr, and even his rebounding has plateaued at 9.5 rebounds per-40 minutes of play.

This is why he’s considered a 2nd round pick. The volume for the three-point shot has gone up. The fouls have gone down only in his most recent year. But for as athletic as he is with the kind of productivity he has, he can leave you wanting more.

Still, he has a solid foundation of doing the difficult NBA things well; being a top tier lob threat, being a 3-point shooting threat, and being switchable on defense. Even if he plateaus skill-wise, but improves his understanding of the game as he matures, he makes for a great change-up pitch off the bench. It’s highly valuable off-ball scoring and switchable defense that is difficult to find.

If, the level of engagement just ramps up, his understanding increases, and he plays healthy with high motor, he becomes a variant of a Chet Holmgren archetype that is just so rare and difficult to find.

If you were to ask me who I think the steal is, it would be Baba Miller. His decision-making and processing have clearly gotten better, and as his role as changed, he became a more prominent decision-maker. Now, he may not run an offense at the NBA level, but he can make decisions in the short roll and use some of his more advanced ball-handling to prevent a turnover. He increased his rim pressure and defensive rebounding as his career went on, and while he may not be dynamically athletic to the level that Brazile is, the modern NBA requires good decision-makers with enough skills to exploit what the defense gives them. Baba Miller can do that.

Trevon Brazile works in a hypothetical two-big lineup. I’m still interested in playing two-big lineups, especially when one of them is capable of average 3-point shooting. Ideally, he doesn’t make a lot of difficult decisions on the floor outside of moving the ball along or finishing a play. There’s nothing wrong with that. Most of the time, that’s all that’s asked of guys like DeAndre Ayton. You want the specialist QB (Doncic) to make all the tough decisions to make finishing at the hoop easy. Brazile would give the Lakers that option as both a lob threat and a hypothetical spacing threat.

Both players are capable of switching defensively. I wouldn’t call either guy shut-down switch defenders, but I would be comfortable with them competing defensively without getting absolutely touched. Contest the shot or give me two wide lateral strides in the direction of the driver. Lots of bigs can’t do that. Baba Miller and Brazile can.

Now, both players are seniors. Well, in Brazile’s case, he’s a super senior after dealing with an injury and recovering well to still have that top tier athletic ability for his size.

It’s not easy to project both guys getting a lot stronger and gaining 20lbs. while still retaining their athletic abilities, especially in terms of footwork and deceleration. They’re both versatile forwards. They’ll likely get pushed around by power forwards and centers alike. The Lakers would need to be more of a spacing and transition team to not only do what’s best for the team generating offense, but also optimizing each of their abilities.

If that’s not the path, then that’s fine. The Lakers will need to look for a more traditional big; a box-out player, a screen setter, a soft touch player in the paint. The South Bay Lakers have given that a try with Colin Castleton and Christian Koloko. It just hasn’t worked. That kind of guy is difficult to find in this draft, and I’d rather use the 2nd round pick on a rare archetype to give the Lakers an option to change things up when the match up is necessary.