Magic Johnson explains why the Lakers didn’t draft Jayson Tatum in 2017

Over the past decade or so, the Los Angeles Lakers have generally done a solid job of drafting players. But like just about any other team in sports, they have had a couple of blunders.

However, one of those blunders sticks out like a seagull in a flock of falcons. With the No. 2 pick in the 2017 draft, the Lakers took local product Lonzo Ball, who has been a solid point guard when healthy, but has suffered many injuries over the years. Even when Ball has been healthy, he hasn’t even come close to living up to the massive hype that was created for him at the time.

One pick later, the Boston Celtics took Jayson Tatum, who eventually evolved into a legitimate star and the foundation of the team that won the NBA championship last season. Many have long wondered why Magic Johnson, who was the Lakers’ president of basketball operations in June 2017, didn’t take Tatum.

During a recent interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio, he said he didn’t because the team already had a glut of productive forwards.

“We took a look at him, I was the president,” Johnson said. “But the problem was, we were top heavy in forwards. I couldn’t take him, because we had Brandon Ingram, who was only in his second year, Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr., so I had already had too many forwards. .. If I took another forward, we would never see this Tatum if he ended up with the Lakers, because he would’ve been sitting on that bench.”

“… We needed a point guard at that time, and that’s why we took Lonzo Ball, and we didn’t need the locker room to have any problems with another young forward.”

But Johnson gave another reason that was apparently beyond his control.

“But his agent also didn’t want us to work him out because he didn’t want him to end up with the Lakers because we already top-heavy with forwards.”

It almost sounds like the scenario the Portland Trail Blazers found themselves in during the 1984 draft when they had the No. 2 pick. Michael Jordan was available, but they fell into the trap of thinking they needed a good or great center to win the NBA championship. So they took Sam Bowie, who became known only for the myriad of injuries he suffered and remains a symbol of drafting the wrong player instead of a Hall of Famer.

Since the Lakers did need a point guard, as Johnson said, they could’ve taken De’Aaron Fox, who went to the Sacramento Kings with the No. 5 pick. Fox has blossomed into a bona fide star who can be counted on to consistently get an efficient 25 points or so and take over in crunch time.

Instead, Johnson and the Lakers, as well as plenty of Lakers fans, got sucked into the great Lonzo Ball hype machine.