WOOOOOO TIME TO CELEBRATE!
The Los Angeles Lakers got the lucky ping-pong ball bounces they needed and will retain their first round pick. The Lakers went into the draft with a 55.8 percent chance at a top-three pick, a pick they would have conveyed to the Philadelphia 76ers due to pick protections left over from their ill-fated Steve Nash sign-and-trade had it fallen outside of the top-three.
Instead, the Lakers will be picking second overall, where they will likely select the remaining of the two freshman phenoms in Ben Simmons out of LSU or Brandon Ingram of Duke.