With the 2017 NBA Draft less than a month away, the Lakers have begun their draft workouts with potential prospects. So far they have been getting a look at players they might select with their late first round pick or they might want to add as an undrafted free agent. The team has yet to hold any workouts for players they might select with their second overall pick but they have workouts with Lonzo Ball and De’Aaron Fox scheduled for early June.
Lakers head coach Luke Walton has been in attendance for these workouts as well as other members of his coaching staff like Brian Shaw and Jesse Mermuys. While building his coaching staff since taking over in LA, Walton has surrounded himself with many coaches he is already familiar with. He did so just recently when the team hired former Arizona Wildcat Miles Simon. Could this be a trend that gets another friend of Walton’s on board with the Lakers?
During this week’s draft workouts the Lakers invited Lamar Odom to come watch prospects at their practice facility. Odom and Walton are great friends from when they were teammates and won championships together with the purple and gold. Lamar has had troubles with drugs and alcohol abuse but since gotten clean and has an interest in joining the team’s coaching staff according to Mark Medina of the Orange County Register. However, the Lakers have said that this was only an invitation to watch the workouts.
Tuesday’s gathering resembled a near reunion of the Lakers’ NBA title teams in 2009 and 2010. After the workout ended, Lakers coach Luke Walton huddled with associate coach Brian Shaw and former forward Lamar Odom.
Does that mean Odom will join Walton’s coaching staff? Odom said he hopes so, but the Lakers said Walton has simply invited Odom to observe the past two days of workouts. Nonetheless, Walton expressed openness last season about Odom helping the Lakers in some capacity.
There is still a long way to go for this to become a real possibility, but if there is mutual interest developed, the two sides would likely look to work something out.
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