The Lakers didn’t punt on youth by trading away their first-round pick from the 2023 Draft. Instead, they drafted point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, clearly laying the groundwork for a non-LeBron James-led future.
James will be entering his 21st season in the NBA in 2023-24. He was drafted in 2003 when Hood-Schifino was just seven days old. The Lakers’ rookie reacted to that news by calling James old.
“I did see that post on ESPN. I was like, ‘Dang, LeBron old’. It’s crazy to think about. He’s obviously one of the greatest players to ever play this game, he’s been in the league for 21 years now. Just his knowledge of the game and what he can bring to the table for Max and the other guys, it’ll be really beneficial.”
“I did see that post on ESPN. I was like ‘Dang, LeBron’s old!’”
Lakers rookie Jalen Hood-Schifino on finding out that he was only 7 days old when LeBron was drafted in 2003 😂pic.twitter.com/iKi2MA9qEm
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 27, 2023
It seems the point guard is salivating for his chance to play alongside one of the greatest players of all time. The locker room will definitely be awkward given JHS was one of the very few rookies from this class that picked Michael Jordan over LeBron as the GOAT.
A Smart Offseason Strategy For The Lakers?
Everyone always expects the Lakers to go all in and acquire stars whenever that looks even remotely possible. That is primarily why people kept thinking the Lakers were going to somehow sign Kyrie Irving despite the financials not making sense. This is a franchise that goes star-hunting but seems to have a different strategy this season.
They have doubled down on adding youth to their roster after trading away Russell Westbrook for a haul of players where the oldest returning piece was 27-year-old D’Angelo Russell. Hood-Schifino turned 20 a few days before the draft, so he’s extremely young. The same goes for second-round pick Maxwell Lewis.
With the team aggressively looking to re-sign Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, it seems surrounding LeBron and Anthony Davis with youth is going to be their path this summer.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
