After a promising run to the Western Conference Finals in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers had every opportunity to build on that momentum by surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis with the necessary pieces needed to compete. They failed gloriously.
Before the Lakers could hand Gabe Vincent a contract that still looks ugly to this day in that offseason's free agency, the 2023 NBA Draft would set the stage for an incredibly disappointing selection. Los Angeles drafted Jalen Hood-Schifino with the 17th overall pick.
It took less than two years for the Lakers to give up on the former Indiana product. That should tell anyone all they need to know about how successful that experiment was.
However, it is only when assessing some of the picks that came after that onlookers can truly appreciate just how bad the selection was. Lakers fans are in for an absolutely gut-wrenching experience in this walk down memory lane.
Lakers find the only draft miss among a group of strong supporting acts
The Lakers have had some painful draft misses in the last 10 years that one would question whether Hood-Schifino is even the worst of the bunch. Lonzo Ball immediately enters the conversation here.
In the 2017 NBA Draft, when the Lakers selected Ball second overall, Jayson Tatum was waiting at the third overall pick. Most will argue here, though, the Boston Celtics do not move down from first to third in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers without knowing Tatum would still be there.
Additionally, the Lakers actually made the most of Ball as an asset, even if he fell short of expectations. Rob Pelinka used the two-way point guard in the trade package that landed Anthony Davis in Los Angeles.
Davis would then turn into Luka Doncic. The blockbuster deal to acquire the generational superstar is actually where Hood-Schifino reemerges into this story. The Lakers guard was not used as an asset here.
As part of the three-team deal, the Utah Jazz acquires guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and a 2025 second-round pick from Los Angeles and a 2025 second-round pick from Dallas.
— Mavs PR (@MavsPR) February 2, 2025
Hood-Schifino was merely a cap dump to the Utah Jazz. Pelinka was forced to attach draft capital to get Utah to absorb his deal too.
It gets better Lakers fans. A handful of the players that followed Hood-Schifino in the 2023 NBA Draft quickly established themselves as NBA-level contributors right out of the gates.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. was selected 18th, right after the Lakers' pick. Jaquez immediately emerged as a supporting act capable of playing 20-plus minutes every night.
Who was selected 19th? Brandin Podziemski, who spent a large part of the 2024-25 campaign as the backcourt partner to Stephen Curry.
Even past just those two, Cam Whitmore was selected 20th overall by the Houston Rockets and Noah Clowney went 21st overall to the Brooklyn Nets. That is quality option after quality option, and somehow, the Lakers found the one guy who wasn't.
In the grand scheme of things, there are certainly other teams out there who have had far worse misses than this. However, the roles that can be served by each of those players all represent important rotational pieces that the Lakers currently lack as a result of this blunder in 2023.
