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The Los Angeles Lakers appear to be doing their best to canvas every prospect possible as they get ready for the 2018 NBA Draft, and the extensive list of players they’ve looked at now includes little-known Chinese prospect Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, according to Michael Scotto of the Athletic.
Abudurexiti, who is not listed as one of Jonathan Givony of ESPN’s top-100 prospects in the draft, has worked out for seven other teams besides the Lakers as well, according to Scotto.
There aren’t a ton of statistics available for Abudurexiti, who has played for the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers and the Chinese National Team sent to the FIBA World Championship Asian Qualifiers, where he averaged 12.5 points, five rebounds and three assists in two games.
Still, Abudurexiti has flashed enough potential to at the very least intrigue one anonymous exec that spoke to Scotto for his longer feature on Abudurexiti:
“He has good size for his position at 6-foot-8 (he’s been listed at 6-9.5 with shoes), shoots a deep 3-pointer with range and is easy with his feet set, and has a nice feel (for the game),” an NBA executive who has seen Abudurexiti extensively told The Athletic. “He lacks the foot speed to defend, which will be a big issue. He could be a late 50s guy to undrafted. Shooting the 3-pointer gives him a chance.”
Scotto additionally reports that Abudurexiti said he would be open to “a two-way deal or draft-and-stash scenario,” so he could potentially be an option for the Lakers in the second round or even maybe as an undrafted free agent. Still, this is more likely just a case of the team doing all of its due diligence rather than any sign they’re smitten with Abudurexiti.
All stats per fiba.com. A full list of every prospect we know the Lakers have worked out is available here. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen, or support his work via Venmo here or Patreon here.