With the 28th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers selected forward Ryan Kelly out of Duke. The prevailing thought was that Kelly could eventually develop into a prototypical stretch four and would be a perfect fit in then-coach Mike D’Antoni‘s offense.
During Kelly’s rookie season, it appeared that the Lakers had made a wise gamble as he showed flashes of solid play, including a 26-point outing against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kelly wasn’t starter material, but he could come in and provide some spacing with his 34 percent three-point shooting, and as the season went on he even developed a surprising ability to block shots from the weakside (1.