Not long after their season came to an end, the Los Angeles Lakers entered into their final preparation for the 2018 NBA Draft. The team shared photos on social media of general manager Rob Pelinka and director of scouting Jesse Buss traveling abroad to get a look at prospects.
More recently, the Lakers have held three workouts at their UCLA Health Training Center. The first, which included Louisville’s Deng Adel, was not open to media. However, portions of the last two sessions this week were.
The two groups of six draft prospects have featured Nevada twins Caleb and Cody Martin, Arizona’s Allonzo Trier and USC’s Chimezie Metu, among others. It also appears the Lakers have done some work behind the scenes.
According to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, they were one of the teams to hold a pre-draft workout with international prospect Abudushalamu Abudurexiti:
Story: Meet China's Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, the NBA draft's mystery man. He's worked out for eight teams so far, including the Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz. https://t.co/CE7GKJkV3w
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) May 10, 2018
Not much is known about Abudurexiti, who is listed at 6 feet 8 eight inches tall and 200 lbs. He shot a career-best 32.9 percent behind the arc, which may pique the Lakers’ interest.
Abudurexiti played in 42 games this season, his third with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association. He averaged 6.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.7 made 3-pointers per game.
Considering that Abudurexiti isn’t a heralded draft prospect, he presumably would be a candidate for their 47th overall pick (second round) of the 2018 Draft, or an option to be signed as an undrafted free agent.
