NBA Draft: Re-drafting the historic 2009 NBA Draft

The Los Angeles Lakers, who were the defending champions at the time, didn’t really need to add anything via this draft, which is why they basically gave their pick away to the New York Knicks in the actual draft.

And why not? They had a top-10 offense and defense, Kobe Bryant was in his prime with a strong supporting cast, they had arguably the greatest coach of all-time on their sidelines in Phil Jackson. What more did they possibly need?

If they absolutely had to pick someone, I suppose taking swingman Chase Budinger out of Arizona made sense. Budinger was a good 3-point shooter in college — and in the pros — and that was one of Los Angeles’ few weaknesses at the time (they ranked 16th in 3-point percentage in 08-09).

He was also a pretty good athlete as shown by his participation in the 2012 Dunk Contest, though that was remembered as a pretty terrible dunk contest with absolutely no star power.

None of this means that much in the end. Whether Budinger played 20 minutes or two, the Lakers were still favored to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals for the next couple of years. The long-term future of their franchise wasn’t going to be determined here.