After an encouraging start, the Los Angeles Lakers saw the 2016-17 steadily turn into a developmental season. The 10-10 start brought about excitement, but the regression then allowed the Lakers to experiment with their roster. Part of that process involved the emergence of the likes of David Nwaba, Tyler Ennis, and Ivica Zubac.
However, Nwaba was clearly the biggest surprise of them all, thrusting his way towards considerable minutes in the Lakers rotation. Nwaba’s story is nowhere close to an ideal scenario, as was detailed in his recent article on The Players’ Tribune. After transferring colleges three times, Nwaba ended up at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo before going undrafted.