Magic Johnson Reveals Why Lakers Didn’t Draft Jayson Tatum

The Los Angeles Lakers’ standing in the NBA has changed over the past several years.

They reached the mountaintop by winning the NBA Finals in 2020, but have struggled to get back to that place in recent seasons.

Even though they have LeBron James on the roster, the Lakers might be missing a piece or two to feel great about their chances moving forward.

One potential piece that they passed up on was Jayson Tatum, electing to take Lonzo Ball in the same draft.

While it looks like a bad decision in hindsight, at the time, this move made sense for the Lakers.

Magic Johnson broke this down in a recent appearance in Sirius XM NBA, discussing the team’s mentality along with the situation with Tatum’s camp at the time.

When talking about Tatum’s recent comments about being disappointed in the Lakers for not drafting him, Johnson said, “We were top heavy in forwards. We couldn’t take him. We had Brandon Ingram, who was only in his second year, Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr., so we already had too many forwards.”

Magic Johnson reveals that Jayson Tatum’s agent did not want him to work out for the Lakers before the draft