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Kristaps Porzingis wowed everyone in the gym Friday with his one-on-none workout in Las Vegas, and it appears to have caused his draft stock to rise considerably. Mitch Kupchak, Jim Buss, and a handful of Lakers staffers made the trip out to Las Vegas to watch the Latvian big man, and apparently came away very impressed. The Los Angeles Lakers are now "pondering" taking Porzingis with the second overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
While Porzingis has had scouts intrigued for some time, his slim frame and tendency to get bullied in the post were consistently cited as reasons why he wouldn't be considered with the top picks in the draft. He seemed to be firmly outside the consensus top-three of Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, and D'Angelo Russell. However, recently some mock drafts have shown Porzingis being selected third by Philadelphia, which would be something of a surprise considering the fact that the Sixers already have Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid penciled in as their starting power forward and center.
The Lakers were never thought to be seriously considering Porzingis with the second pick, as not only would he be a risky selection but he also seemingly wouldn't be a good fit with the team already having Julius Randle as their power forward of the future. It is possible that Porzingis was so impressive at the workout that fit is no longer a factor.
Porzingis showed impressive athleticism for a player his size, showcasing a number of vicious dunks. His shooting was also as good as advertised, if not better, although it's yet to be seen if he can produce against NBA-caliber athletes.
Some scouts have even went as far as to say that Porzingis is better than the consensus No. 1 overall pick, Karl-Anthony Towns. We won't know for sure whether or not the Lakers agree with this assessment until their pick is announced on June 25th.
Of course, this time of year teams and agents tend to put out a lot of false information in order to achieve a variety of goals, making it tough to distinguish fact from fiction. For now Jahlil Okafor has to be considered the odds-on favorite to end up in Los Angeles, but a lot can change between now and the draft. Hang in there, the big night is just around the corner.