LAKERS : Club Has Needs but Will Take Best

It is not the cliche it seems, this idea that the Lakers will use the 10th pick in today’s NBA draft for the best player available.

It actually is the quandary. How can the team that already has Anthony Peeler, Doug Christie, Sedale Threatt and Tony Smith take another shooting guard? How can the team that is coming off a 33-49 season not address such needs as scoring at forward and rebounding?

“We think that the best player will be a guard at that spot, and we’re simply going to take the best player,” Executive Vice President Jerry West said.

“When you’re drafting a little bit later, you can take someone who has a special skill. But you want to take the best basketball player at this position.”

In other words, don’t worry about special skills when you are in the lottery for the first time. Worry about skills, period. Take the sure thing.

So, while waiting to see if one of the forwards most have pegged to go earlier unexpectedly drops into their laps, the Lakers could very well take another guard. They will consider a small forward such as Carlos Rogers, but they will look hardest at Eddie Jones and Khalid Reeves, and maybe even Michigan’s Jalen Rose and Nebraska’s Mike Piatkowski.

Today, though, barring someone dropping, this figures to be the group the Lakers will choose from:

--Jones. The Temple product might be the best athlete in the draft and can probably play some small forward, at 6 feet 6, besides his projected spot at shooting guard.

--Reeves. The Lakers would have one of the smallest backcourts in the league if they went with the 6-3 Reeves alongside 6-1 Nick Van Exel, but the only problem would be on defense. The bonus is that he can be two players in one, someone who can also play point guard, and the Lakers would like to get a backup for Van Exel.

--Rogers. He is a legitimate 6-10 at small forward, which would give the Lakers the added dimension of using a big lineup after going last season with 6-6 Doug Christie and 6-7 George Lynch.

The Lakers do not have a second-round selection. Seattle has it, the No. 37 pick, because of the Threatt trade in 1991.