Los Angeles Lakers: 5 2nd-Round Prospects

A.J. Hammons, C, Purdue

The Lakers can’t help but approach a player like A.J. Hammons with a bit of caution. After all, they’ve taken chances with players in his mold before: incredible size and enormous rim protecting potential.

The evidence of the success the Lakers have had with those types can be seen in the disappointing starts to the careers of benchwarmer Robert Sacre and recently terminated D-League holdover Robert Upshaw.

Like Sacre and Upshaw, Hammons boasts fantastic size at the center position (7-feet, 250 pounds) and tremendous shot-blocking ability (a career average of 2.6 blocks per game). However, what Hammons possesses that Sacre and Upshaw do not is genuine talent on the offensive end.

Hammons uses his size to get great positioning in the paint and is fundamentally sound in executing post moves. He knows his spots and takes smart shots, as shown by his 15.0 points per game on 59.2 percent shooting from the field in his senior season.

What’s even more intriguing is the fact that he shot 54.5 percent from three in his senior season. Granted, he only took 11 of them, but that’s still a pretty good number for a physical center like himself and indicates that he can be molded into an outside threat as well.

On top of all this, Hammons has the raw athleticism to dominate in the pick and roll along with solid rebounding skills (8.2 a game his senior year) and that above average shot blocking.

Hammons is skilled in enough areas that he’ll be a solid contributor at the least with sky-high potential to be far greater than that.

Next: High Risk, High Reward Player