It seems virtually impossible that Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, Dennis Schroder and Lonnie Walker IV will return to the Los Angeles Lakers next season. All four guards are about to become free agents, and the Lakers likely will not have enough salary cap flexibility to keep all four.
Luckily, the team will have the No. 17 and No. 47 picks in the 2023 NBA draft, which could yield one or even two viable backcourt players. In addition, the annual crop of undrafted free agents might provide another diamond in the rough.
One guard the Lakers recently worked out is Adam Seiko of San Diego State University.
A look at Seiko
Seiko stands 6-foot-3 and weighs a robust 210 pounds. Although he’s originally from Boston, he attended Sierra Canyon School in the San Fernando Valley, the same school LeBron James’ son, Bronny James, recently graduated from.
Seiko played five years of college ball at San Diego State, and he showed a great deal of improvement during that time. He barely played as a freshman and sophomore, but he has shown some real promise this past season.
He is known as a defensive specialist, and he has benefited from a culture at SDSU that is based on defense. The team reached the NCAA championship game a couple of months ago, only to lose to the University of Connecticut, but Seiko has certainly put in plenty of hard work.
Two seasons ago (2020-21), he shot 32.9% from 3-point range. But the following season he improved to 40.4%, and this last season he was at 45.8% on 3.2 attempts per game.
Adam Seiko, the winningest player in San Diego State history, has been excellent during our pre-draft process & was a top performer at our Pro Day in front of 200+ NBA executives. @adamseiko2 was also 1st in the Mountain West Conference in 3PT% (45.8% on 3.2 attempts per game). pic.twitter.com/u4A6c3KDx5
— BDA Sports INTL (@BDASportsINTL) June 8, 2023
Seiko, who averaged 5.8 points a game during the 2022-23 campaign, which was a career-high, isn’t a scoring threat. In addition, he is 25 years old, which severely limits his upside.
However, he seems to have some potential as a 3-and-D guard at the next level.
