The 2025 NBA Draft is just over a month away, but the Los Angeles Lakers don’t project to be one of the more active teams in the draft. They have zero first-round picks and just one pick overall, and that selection will be in the tail end of the draft.
However, a recent mock draft from Bleacher Report has the Lakers selecting a prospect with the No. 55 overall pick that could have fans of the storied franchise thrilled. Jonathan Wasserman has projected the Lakers will draft none other than former Villanova University star Eric Dixon, who led the nation with a scoring average of 23.3 points per game in the 2024-25 collegiate campaign.
“There are a lot of questions about Eric Dixon’s fit at the next level, such as who does he defend and will he create separation offensively,” Wasserman wrote. “But late in the second round, teams will at least talk about the nation’s leading scorer who just hit 94 threes at 6’8”, 265 pounds.
“He may have become a sharp enough shotmaker for teams to see some type of stretch-4 and pick-and-pop role.”
Maybe Dixon’s most translatable skill is his knack for spacing the floor outside the 3-point arc. He was one of the premier 3-point shooters in the nation in his fifth collegiate season and scored a good chunk of his points from deep, as he shot 40.7 percent from range and averaged 2.9 made 3s per contest.
Drafting Dixon would make a whole lot of sense on paper for the Lakers, considering they were merely a middle-of-the-pack 3-point shooting team in the 2024-25 campaign.
The 3-point shot is a vital component to a lot of the NBA’s best offenses, and the Boston Celtics won a title less than a year ago relying heavily on the shot, yet the Lakers ranked 15th in the league in made 3s per game and 19th in attempts during the regular season, and they didn’t fare all that better during their short time in the 2025 NBA Playoffs.
It would be unrealistic for Lakers fans to expect Dixon to be much more than an effective spot-up shooter on offense, particularly in his rookie season. But, the Lakers don’t need him to be an offensive hub with the elite creators they have.
If he can consistently knock down open looks off the catch, that alone should be enough to warrant a Lakers team that isn’t filled to the brim with excellent 3-point shooters to seriously consider giving him rotation minutes.
Overall, despite his blemishes, it’s difficult to imagine that the Lakers could draft a more NBA-ready player at the No. 55 spot in this year’s draft than Dixon — if he is still on the board.