Lakers News: South Bay Lakers Make Two Selections In 2022 NBAGL Draft

South Bay's G League season commences on November 5th.

In today's three-round NBA G League draft, your Los Angeles Lakers' El Segundo NBAGL affiliate, the South Bay Lakers, selected two exciting new young players.

During the first round today, South Bay picked 6'11" power forward Nate Roberts with the No. 17 selection out of the University of Washington. South Bay's front office allowed a camera team to view their process:

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— South Bay Lakers (@SouthBayLakers) October 22, 2022

Joey Buss, the team's CEO (and one of the younger sons for beloved former owner Dr. Jerry Buss), can be seen in the clip, as can head video coordinator Yoni Afework. Brian Walsh, the team's associate head coach and player development director, can be seen calling the Roberts selection into the G League office.

During his redshirt junior season with the Huskies in 2021-22, Roberts, a high-level post defender, started all 32 games, but had a fairly limited offensive presence. Across 23.1 minutes a night, he averaged college career-bests of 5.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.7 blocks. For his last two NCAA contests ever, he posted averages of 15.5 points and 16 boards.

South Bay drafted 6'6" small John Meeks in the second round today out of the College of Charleston, with the 17th pick of the round (and 36th overall).

After four seasons at Bucknell, Meeks played for Charleston in 2021-22. During that final NCAA season, he averaged 14.1 points on .468/.368/.793 shooting splits, along with 4.7 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and a steal.

Following this draft, South Bay now possesses the draft rights to Roberts and Meeks. Essentially, that means that, should they elect to play in the G League, they would suit up for South Bay, barring any subsequent trade. They could also look to play professionally beyond the confines of the NBA or the G League, but the NBAGL route, though it does not pay as well as some international leagues, is the most direct pipeline to possible future NBA rostering.

Your South Bay Lakers will kick off their 2022-23 G League season against the Sacramento Kings' NBAGL affiliate, the Stockton Kings, on November 5th at their home arena (also the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility), the UCLA Health Training Center.

Full 2022 NBA G League draft results are viewable here.