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Lakers draft picks Jalen Hood-Schifino, Maxwell Lewis ready to hit ground running

June 28, 2023

Lakers draft picks Maxwell Lewis, left, and Jalen Hood-Schifino are introduced during a press conference on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Lakers draft picks Maxwell Lewis, left, and Jalen Hood-Schifino take questions from reporters during a press conference on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Lakers first-round draft pick Jalen Hood-Schifino takes questions from reporters during a press conference on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka answers questions during a press conference introducing draft picks Maxwell Lewis and Jalen Hood-Schifino on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

From left, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, draft picks Maxwell Lewis and Jalen Hood-Schifino and Lakers coach Darvin Ham, answer questions during a press conference on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Lakers coach Darvin Ham answers questions during a press conference introducing draft picks Maxwell Lewis and Jalen Hood-Schifino on Tuesday at the Lakers’ training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Lakers second-round draft pick Maxwell Lewis takes questions from reporters during a press conference at the Lakers’ training facility on Tuesday in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

From left, Lakers coach Darvin Ham, first-round draft pick Jalen Hood-Schifino, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and second-round pick Maxwell Lewis arrive for a press conference introducing the newest Lakers on Tuesday at the team’s training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

From left, Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, draft picks Maxwell Lewis and Jalen Hood-Schifino and Lakers coach Darvin Ham, pose for photos during a press conference on Tuesday at the team’s training facility in El Segundo. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

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EL SEGUNDO — For Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis – who the Lakers selected with the Nos. 17 and 40 picks in last Thursday’s NBA draft – the last few days have been “surreal”, as Lewis put it.

Not just because their dreams of making it to the league came to fruition. But because of who the Lakers, and a specific Lakers great, meant to them.

Both Hood-Schifino and Lewis mentioned the late Kobe Bryant as a source of inspiration growing up. Lewis said his father, Robert, who is from Inglewood, put a poster of Kobe in his room growing up.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said Hood-Schifino mentioned the “Mamba Mentality” as “one of the pillars in his life” in a previous conversation.

“The first thing I thought of was Kobe, because growing up, I was a big Kobe fan,” Hood-Schifino said about his initial reaction to being selected by the Lakers. “I was just like, ‘This can’t be real right now.’ I didn’t really have no emotions. I felt like I couldn’t cry. Couldn’t really talk. I didn’t really hear nothing. Just like, ‘Dang, I’m really about to be a Laker.’ I’m just really thankful.”

But as the rookies got settled into the UCLA Health Training Facility during Tuesday’s introductory press conference, the conversation shifted.

The 6-foot-6, 215-pound Hood-Schifino, who was Indiana’s second-leading scorer last season, and the 6-7, 195-pound Lewis, Pepperdine’s leading scorer last season, won’t be asked to play the same roles as rookies that they did in college.

The 20-year-old rookies will have to adapt and find ways to fit into a Lakers team that is coming off a Western Conference finals appearance and expects to challenge for the title in 2023-24.

“Coming in as a rookie, obviously, you start from the bottom,” Hood-Schifino said. “Obviously, you have to find your niche and find what you need to do to help your team win. Whether that’s being vocal, being an assist guy, playing defense or whatever it is, I’m going to go in there with the approach that I want to help the team win and get better every single day.”

Cracking the rotation of a playoff team as a rookie isn’t easy.

Minutes typically aren’t given out from Day One as they would be on a younger, rebuilding team coming off a losing season. It will take more work to earn playing time.

But in Coach Darvin Ham’s eyes, the best way for Hood-Schifino and Lewis to earn their playing time will be by proving they’re ready to compete and handle responsibilities on the defensive end.

“We have all the faith in the world in these two, that they’re going to fall right into place with what we’ve got going on,” Ham said. “As a young player, the harder you play [and] compete, particularly on the defensive end, usually, those guys are the ones who get the minutes early. The offense will catch up. But first, they have to establish a competitive tone, and buying in, knowing what we’re doing defensively. That’s going to translate into everything else.”

Pelinka has said the front office values continuity heading into free agency, which begins Friday at 3 p.m. PT.

How Hood-Schifino and Lewis will fit into that vision remains to be seen and is something the rookies will have to prove.

But Pelinka doesn’t want to put a ceiling on how Hood-Schifino and Lewis could contribute to a team that’s looking to remain a contender.

“We’re at the doorstep of free agency and we’ve been pretty clear since our last game with the success of making it to the Western Conference finals, we want to try our hardest to keep this core of guys together and also improve around the edges and on the margins to not only get back to where we were last year but hopefully take the next step and get into the NBA Finals,” Pelinka said. “The league is full of young players that can surprise – even in the playoffs.

“The team that beat us, Denver, had a guy that they drafted last year [Christian Braun] that was in their rotation. So I don’t want to put a limit on what either of these guys here can do for Coach Ham and the team. They’re gonna start with the foundation of work, and if they earn minutes in our rotation, that’s because they put in the work to do it. But I do think guys can be impactful in this league – even young players.

The Lakers begin Summer League play on July 3 in the six-team California Classic in Sacramento before heading to Las Vegas for the league-wide event (July 7-17).

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Lakers draft picks Jalen Hood-Schifino, Maxwell Lewis ready to hit ground running

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