NBA Draft Rumors: Lakers want to work out De’Aaron Fox and Dennis Smith ‘over the next two weeks’

A lot of attention has been paid to the Los Angeles Lakers scheduling their first pre-draft workout with Lonzo Ball next week, and rightfully so considering he’ll likely be the player they select with the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Still, the team will reportedly try to keep an open mind heading into the draft, and thus will need to work out multiple players projected to go near the top of the order.

To that end, Shams Charania of the Vertical reports that “the Lakers plan to work out other top prospects over the next two weeks, including Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and N.C. State’s Dennis Smith.”

It had already been reported that the Lakers would work out Fox this month, but we now have a more specific timetable as well as the added info that the team plans to bring in Smith as well. Fox is the currently the fifth ranked prospect in the draft, according to DraftExpress, while Smith rank’s seventh on the invaluable draft site’s big board.

The Lakers doing their due diligence on two of the top prospects in the draft hardly comes as a surprise, but fans should still be encouraged by the team dotting its “i’s” and crossing its “t’s” instead of just penciling in Ball as their draft choice, no matter how obvious it seems they’ll select him. The front office is instead turning over every rock to make sure they didn’t miss anything, homework that should make fans at least a bit optimistic about the direction of the franchise.

Stay tuned to Silver Screen and Roll for the latest updates on when these workouts will take place. Here is an updating list of every player the Lakers have worked out or met with. Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here, or listen to our latest episode on the draft and more with Jonathan Tjarks of the Ringer below), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.