With the 2026 NBA Draft lauded as one of the deepest in quite some time, even teams like the Lakers, who have a late pick, are looking to add a quality player to their roster.
Los Angeles is doing everything possible to find a draft prospect who can help the team win now. They’ve hired former Virginia coach Tony Bennett to come in as a draft advisor and have worked out a ton of players.
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Now, Cody Taylor, a writer for the Rookie Wire, is reporting that the Lakers have recently worked out a slew of new players, including Skyy Clark and Trey Kaufman-Ren.
Clark is a guard who has played the last two seasons of his collegiate career at UCLA. During his senior year, he averaged 11.5 points per game and shot 42.7% from 3-point range.
Given Clark’s shooting and ball-handling skills, he is exactly the kind of guard the Lakers could use as part of a backup unit. He is not on mock drafts as a first-round selection, so LA is likely scouting him to see if he can be an undrafted player they can pick up.
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Kaufman-Ren is another prospect who is projected to go late in the draft. He is a forward who spent his entire collegiate career at Purdue and finished his final year averaging 14.2 points and 8.3 rebounds.
He could be a player who provides much-needed wing depth for LA, as well as some size and rebounding ability.
A prime example of this was his performance against Oklahoma this past season, where he scored 19 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, including seven that were offensive boards.
In the NCAA tournament, he had arguably the best moment of his career, scoring the game-winning basket for Purdue off a tip-in to push the Boilermakers into the Elite Eight.
The Lakers’ search for potentially undrafted players is a good sign that they are doing their due diligence and trying to win in the margins.
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This is exactly how they got Austin Reaves back in 2021, when he went undrafted and they picked him up afterward.
While that’s a rare success story, it can only happen again if a franchise puts itself in a position to take advantage of players who slip through the cracks. It seems LA is giving themselves a chance of doing that again by working out so many players.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
