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The Los Angeles Lakers are fully in the midst of the 2018 NBA Draft process, and will continue evaluating players they could potentially take when they host Allonzo Trier (Arizona), Cody Martin (Nevada), DJ Hogg (Texas A&M), Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State), Shake Milton (SMU and Chimezie Metu (USC) at the UCLA Health Training Center Wednesday.
The Lakers currently have the 25th and 47th overall picks, and this group appears to be a mixture of prospects for either selection.
Milton is the highest rated of the bunch, at least according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN, who has the SMU guard ranked as the 34th-best prospect in the draft.
Depending on how he does in predraft sessions, Milton is right in the range where he could potentially rise up to the 25th spot or fall to 47th, depending on how the draft shakes out after a season that saw him average 18 points, 4.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds.
Metu is the next most highly regarded of the bunch. The Trojans big man averaged 15.7 points and 7.4 rebounds during his third season at USC, and Givony has him slotted as the 38th-best prospect in the draft, essentially leaving him in the same range as Milton.
This is definitely the group with the most juice the Lakers have brought in so far, as it’s the first session in which all six players were ranked in ESPN’s top-100 prospects, with Trier (No. 83), Martin (No. 88), Hogg (No. 68) and Wigginton (No. 73) all making the cut.
All four of those players could at the very least be a consideration for either of the Lakers’ summer league teams as undrafted free agents if they don’t blow anyone away, and more information on if any of them impressed the team’s brass will be available after their workout on Wednesday.
All stats per sports-reference.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.