Who should the Lakers target in the 2022 NBA Draft?

While the Los Angeles Lakers have not yet bought an NBA draft pick, they are certainly interested in doing so, as general manager Rob Pelinka himself confirmed. Given the availability of picks in the second round each year, it feels likely the Lakers will be able to buy a pick and make a selection in the draft for a player they would roster for the first time since selecting Talen Horton-Tucker in 2019.

With that in mind, in this week’s episode of “Can U Dig It,” a podcast from the Silver Screen & Roll network, I welcome in draft guru and Lakers fan Mike Garcia to talk about a wealth of prospects the Lakers could target. With the team still not technically owning a pick, we cover a wide range of prospects, including first round prospects that could slide, second round picks that could be gems and some potentially undrafted prospects.

A pair of players Mike has his eye on in the lead-up to the draft are Keon Ellis of Alabama and Jabari Walker of Colorado. Each brings a high energy and motor to the court as well as some defensive acumen as taller wings, a trio of needs for the Lakers after last season.

We also take a look at some bigs that could help the Lakers, some shooters and a handful of UCLA prospects that have either worked out or been interviewed by the Lakers. Mike, who nailed Austin Reaves as a prospect the Lakers should target last season, also tries to predict who this year’s Austin Reaves might be to wrap up the show.

You can listen to all that and more on our latest episode in the player embedded below, and to make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude. And for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed.