{"id":767097,"date":"2026-06-21T22:09:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/767097\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T22:09:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T22:09:14","slug":"lakers-rumors-quaintance-reed-de-larrea-smith-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/767097\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Rumors: Quaintance, Reed, De Larrea, Smith, Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rival teams expect the Lakers to draft a center with the 25th overall pick, according to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a>, who reports in his latest Substack story that the team has been connected to Kentucky\u2019s Jayden Quaintance<\/a> and UConn\u2019s Tarris Reed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quaintance is ranked 22nd on ESPN\u2019s big board<\/a>, while Reed comes in at No. 33.<\/p>\n

Quaintance was once a projected lottery pick, but some NBA teams are concerned with the status of his knee after he tore his ACL as a freshman with Arizona State in 2024\/25, Fischer writes. The 6\u20199\u2033 big man, who doesn\u2019t turn 19 until next month, was limited to just four appearances with Kentucky in \u201925\/26.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible neither player will be on the board at No. 25. Fischer hears Reed has been linked to teams in the late teens, and a rival club could take a gamble on Quaintance\u2019s upside if he falls into the 20s.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more draft-related chatter on the Lakers:<\/p>\n

Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times<\/a>, who has also heard the chatter about the Lakers and Quaintance, points to Dailyn Swain<\/a> and Isaiah Evans<\/a> as a couple of \u201cbest available\u201d possibilities if they fall to No. 25. Texas wing Swain is ranked 23rd on ESPN\u2019s board, while Duke shooting guard Evans is at No. 25. In general, the team is looking for rim-running centers and three-and-D wings to complement Luka Doncic<\/a>, Turner writes.
\nAccording to Turner, the Lakers spent time in Spain scouting Sergio De Larrea<\/a>, the 6\u20196\u2033 guard who\u2019s No. 30 on ESPN\u2019s list. People familiar with the matter tell tell Turner that L.A. was impressed by Purdue\u2019s Braden Smith<\/a> when the team hosted him for a pre-draft workout. However, the diminutive point guard is considered a likely second-round pick (he\u2019s 39th on ESPN\u2019s board), so he may not be under serious consideration for the Lakers unless they trade back or acquire a second-rounder.
\nThe following prospects have worked out for the Lakers in recent weeks, league sources tell Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link<\/a>): Skyy Clark<\/a> (UCLA), Oscar Cluff<\/a> (Purdue), Josh Dix<\/a> (Creighton), Roddy Gayle<\/a> (Michigan), Nate Johnson<\/a> (Kansas State), Trey Kaufman-Renn<\/a> (Purdue), Tamin Lipsey<\/a> (Iowa St), Ebuka Okorie<\/a> (Stanford), Reed of UConn, Kowacie Reeves<\/a> (Georgia Tech), and Peter Suder<\/a> (Miami OH). Okorie is the only projected first-rounder in that group, coming in at No. 24 on ESPN\u2019s board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rival teams expect the Lakers to draft a center with the 25th overall pick, according to Jake Fischer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,2456,20708,65460,2428,6658,18249,91899,368,2441,19417,74820,94022,73491,34555,45750,54255,2458],"class_list":["post-767097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-braden-smith","tag-dailyn-swain","tag-ebuka-okorie","tag-isaiah-evans","tag-jayden-quaintance","tag-josh-dix","tag-kowacie-reeves","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nate-johnson","tag-oscar-cluff","tag-peter-suder","tag-roddy-gayle","tag-sergio-de-larrea","tag-skyy-clark","tag-tamin-lipsey","tag-tarris-reed","tag-trey-kaufman-renn"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116790385912346998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}