**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

guessing they bring dlo back on a lower number than dlo really wants and then try to trade him deadline?

Maybe.

But the trade would need to be for another guard. Or sign one now that has a big role.


If it’s trading DLo for let’s say a SF or C at the deadline.
And the guard rotation is AR/Beasley/JHS/Max. That’s going to create some problems. Would need a pretty big year for JHS and a jump by Max (Max part is much more likely but still up in the air).

I keep saying DLo and Lakers are a match made of timeline and necessity. When Bron is gone. DLo probably is too. Otherwise they are kind of beholden to having little flexibility without gutting the team.
 
Of the guys they officially worked out stil available

Max Lewis
Andre Jackson Jr
Sidy Cissoko
Jalen Wilson
Terq Smith
 
Vecenie's scouting report on Max Lewis:
35. Maxwell Lewis

BACKGROUND

Parents are Robert and Jennifer. Comes from an athletic family. Two of his brothers played college football, one of them at Iowa State. Has a sister who ran track at UNLV. Interesting pathway that resulted in him being a bit underrated coming out of high school. Hit a growth spurt that saw him outgrow his siblings, and he decided to jump into basketball fully in his teens. Started at Somerset Academy in his hometown then transferred to Edward Clark High School in Las Vegas. Had to play junior varsity at Clark as a sophomore because of a rule regarding transfers within the state of Nevada. After that year, he decided to transfer to Compass Prep in Arizona, a basketball power within the state. With that transfer, he decided to move from the Class of 2020 to the Class of 2021 as a recruit to get the extra year of development back. After playing for Dream Vision on the Adidas circuit and performing well, he had a solid season playing at Compass Prep, averaging 15 points per game for a team that played a loaded schedule. Lewis then transferred for a fourth time, choosing national hoops power Hillcrest Prep, also in Arizona. However, prior to that season in 2020, he decided to graduate from Compass Prep and instead attend Chameleon BX, a training program whose goal was to prepare players for the NBA Draft. MarJon Beauchamp also similarly decided to do this. However, COVID-19 caused issues in the Bay Area, with players in the program becoming unable to find gyms to work out in. So, he left that program quickly and played late in the AAU circuit, again for Dream Vision. As an athletic shooter who is 6-7, Lewis quickly got offers again. He ended up as a top-150 recruit in the class who was a three-/four-star recruit depending on the service you prefer. He had offers from Utah, Arizona State and other high-major programs but instead decided to attend Pepperdine and signed in September 2021. Lewis had to sit out the first six games of the year while the NCAA investigated his eligibility and ultimately concluded he was able to play. Lewis earned All-Freshman WCC honors and quickly emerged as a high-upside player. Returned for his sophomore year and blossomed early. Averaged 20.1 points, six rebounds and three assists on 52 percent from the field, 42 percent from 3 and 86 percent from the line in his first 17 games. But he only played three top-70 teams in that time, per KenPom, and averaged 16 points, five rebounds, two assists and nearly four turnovers in those games. In his final 14 games, he averaged just 13.4 points, turned the ball over 3.6 times and shot just 39.6 percent from the field and 22.4 percent from 3. Was only a second-team All-WCC player. Declared for the 2023 NBA Draft after the season. Was invited to the 2023 NBA Draft Combine.

STRENGTHS
Lewis is a superb athlete with terrific length. He’s 6-foot-6 1/4 without shoes and has a 7-foot wingspan and has a terrific 8-foot-8 1/4 standing reach for a wing. On top of that, he’s a twitchy athlete. Has a great first step and can blow by his man in a straight line. Also is a terrific leaper. Has vertical pop and can throw down highlight-reel dunks. Moreover, he also has good balance and good speed. Allows him to get his center of gravity and quickly plant to fire from 3 off the hop. An enormous threat in transition. Has that light-on-his-feet, floating leaping style that really allows him to look graceful in the air. Has some recovery ability with his length and athleticism on defense that allows him to gamble for steals and create transition chances, encompassing what I would call his only positive traits on that end of the court. Really interesting offensive skill set that largely has to do with his scoring ability. The skill that will translate most is his shooting, particularly off the catch. Lewis is a good shooter, having made 35.4 percent from 3 in college. If he’s open directly off the catch, it’s curtains. The ball is almost certainly going in. Two things really help here. He has terrific touch and good shot prep. Can take them off the hop or off the one-two step, depending on how much time he has. Gets them off quickly. Seems to do a really good job of finding open space to spot up. Loves the corners. In total, Lewis made 44.1 percent of his shots directly off the catch this past season, per Synergy. Only issue was that he took under two per game. Lewis showcased some potential as a scorer off the bounce. I wouldn’t call it actualized yet, but the upside exists. Doesn’t quite have as much craft as Jalen Williams did at Santa Clara last year in the WCC and is a bit more mechanical in his movements (we’ll talk about that momentarily). But he is athletic with a good first step, is a legitimate shooter who knows how to use that threat to get space with a jab step and has real skill shooting over the top of defenders. Loves to step back to the left on that sidestep shot. Can hit that quick straight-line drive as a self-creator into a pull-up from the midrange at a high level. Pepperdine also got him in the mid-post a fair amount, where he could back down a defender or just shoot over the top of a smaller man. Has a bit of a higher release seemingly off the bounce than off the catch, which allows him to be a bit more effective in these settings. Has good footwork, but I’m a bit skeptical of this translating to the next level any time soon. He did finish 57.3 percent of his attempts at the rim, a solid number in half-court settings, per Synergy. For Pepperdine’s flaws, the coaching staff did find a lot of creative ways to get him the ball. They used him in dribble handoffs where he’d flatten out behind them as a screener and fire from behind. Think he’s also a sharp off-ball mover. Cuts into open areas on the back side in non-preordained reads or set actions. But in those set actions, Pepperdine did a good job of finding him some impressive lobs at the rim where he could really rise and take advantage of his vertical athleticism edge on the rest of the league. Ran quick give-and-gos in Pepperdine’s offense.

WEAKNESSES
I think Lewis’ lack of strength and bulk really showcases itself at times in ways that could cause issues. Has a thin frame that doesn’t look like it’ll add weight at a high level without potentially taking something away from his explosiveness. Ends up impacting his game in a few different ways. Will really need to add some physical strength over the next three years to get the most out of his game in the NBA. While he was incredibly productive and coaches in the WCC were very impressed with the talent, they thought he didn’t impact the game as much as he could have and process the game as quickly as he should beyond his scoring. Floor game desperately needs improvement. Defensively, I’m worried about Lewis at the next level. Has some moments when his athleticism and length plays up, but he does not make an impact on that end over large swaths of the game. Has some bizarre moments where he disengages a bit both on and off the ball. Hops around a lot. Allows on-ball scorers to be able to time his hops and attack his lack of momentum. Doesn’t seem to know how to navigate screens at a high level. Has the kind of frame that would allow him to get skinny around them but doesn’t seem to have a great understanding of how to approach them. He hops a lot on the ball as opposed to consistently sliding. Also tends to fall for pump fakes. He’s not in any way, shape or form a disruptive defender now. Off the ball, Lewis is a very consistent ball-watcher and riverboat gambler. Gets hit falling asleep on backdoor cuts all the time. Teams started to play off this too. They knew he was going to try to jump passing lanes, so they prepped their players to cut immediately backdoor when they saw him go. But on top of it, he also didn’t get home that often when he shot passing lanes. Averaged under steal per game, a remarkably low number for someone this long and athletic playing at the WCC level. Not the most consistent with his rotations. Will miss help and scramble rotations a bit too often. Overall, Pepperdine was a bit of a mess on defense, so you don’t want to penalize him too much. Lorenzo Romar-coached teams tend to be a mess on that end. But he certainly played his part in it. Worry about how Lewis’ game as a scorer off the bounce translates. Does not pressure the basket in the half court as a driver. Most of his shots at the rim are in transition, in those post-up possessions mentioned in the strengths section, or on off-ball cuts. Settles for jumpers, but more than that just does not get away from his man, really. Does not have a creative handle at all. Largely is reliant on shooting contested shots over length. That resulted in some disastrous numbers off the bounce this past season. On pull-up attempts, Lewis made just 33 percent of his overall looks, including just 28 percent from 3, per Synergy. Doesn’t play well out of ball screens. Don’t think he handles double-teams all that well in the midrange. Think his handle is a bit loose. The combination of his loose handle and inability to process out of collapsed defenses when he drives resulted in him turning the ball over 3.3 times per game. Given that his craft isn’t always consistent, will that look as clean against longer, athletic players in the NBA? How sustainable is this, given that a big part of his upside is based on shot creation? Finally, as mentioned above, I wouldn’t really call Lewis a plus passer. Negative assist-to-turnover ratio. Telegraphs reads that lead to turnovers. Will leap and get in the air before deciding and doesn’t really process the game fast enough to where he can make those reads on the fly. Can’t throw live-dribble passes. Often has to gather before making his pass, which means passing windows can close before he gets the ball to the man. Tends to be a very turnover-prone player for how often he has the ball in his hands. Has gotten better at seeing the reads but still does miss open teammates in favor of shooting himself. Shot selection is bad. Needs to improve his execution and overall attention to detail on the court.

SUMMARY
With Lewis, you’re betting on him being a terrific shooter with awesome tools. There are worse bets to make than a 6-6 wing with real length and athleticism, especially one who missed a year of his development. Having said that, the tape wasn’t pretty this past season. Even in the early part of the season when he was killing it, the tape still left a lot to be desired in terms of his defense and impact on winning. Pepperdine was not an untalented team. Including Lewis, there were four genuine high-major talents on the roster. In a lot of ways, he’s the epitome of a guy you can sell yourself on with highlights and the 1,000-foot view of his profile, but the full games tell a different story. He has to improve defensively across the board and must improve his ability to make quicker reads. He has to improve his handle and decision-making. It would also help him to get stronger. If he does those things, he has a chance to be an impact player. But there is so much he has clean up. If he had been a lights-out pull-up shooter this past season, I think I’d be more interested. But that part of his game wasn’t as efficient as some of the difficult shotmaking clips give you hope for in terms of what he can become. I just can’t quite get to a first-round grade level on him even with all his immense tools. There are too many parts of his game that make him a project.
Hollinger's scouting report:
42. Maxwell Lewis, 20, 6-6 sophomore SF, Pepperdine
I was pretty disappointed to see Lewis sit out the combine games rather than play against some of the other likely second-rounders in the draft without the drawback of his overmatched Pepperdine team surrounding him. Lewis has some markers that make him attractive: He’s 6-6 in socks with a 7-0 wingspan, he posted a 32 1/2-inch no-step vertical, and he’s at least respectable as a shooter (35.4 percent from 3 on high volume; 79.1 percent from the line).

On the other hand, his actual season left a lot to be desired. Pepperdine was awful but perhaps shouldn’t have been with the talent on the floor; Lewis played a part in that. His numbers as a 20-year-old in the WCC: 14.6 PER on 49.9 percent true shooting. That’s more second-division Germany stuff than NBA prospect. Additionally, for a long, athletic wing, he was a shockingly bad defender; Lewis reliably got lost off the ball and posted an unusually low steal rate despite constant gambling.

Lewis also doesn’t read the game notably well off the dribble, with a high turnover rate and unremarkable efficiency inside the arc (47.3 percent on 2s in conference play).

Overall, once you get past “6-6 athlete with shooting!” Lewis seems like a serious reach in the first round with all the deficiencies in his game. There’s a right tail of upside that’s interesting, but it’s a low-probability gamble. Unlike the list of wings above, his shooting won’t keep him off the floor; instead, everything else will.
 
pick Doesn’t make sense if you plan on developing max Christie

Who by all Accounts has gotten taller, gotten stronger and is working on his shot


Not sure what the hell we just did
 
pick Doesn’t make sense if you plan on developing max Christie

Who by all Accounts has gotten taller, gotten stronger and is working on his shot


Not sure what the hell we just did
Can never have enough young 6'7 athletes that can shoot reasonably well.
 
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