Former Blue Devil Ryan Kelly Showing Lakers What He Can Do

The Lakers collectively and Ryan Kelly individually have not had an enjoyable season to date. L.A. has lost Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and Julius Randle for the season.

Randle blew out his ACL in the first game of his first year - you can't get much worse luck than that.

And as for Kelly, he has been dealing with hamstring issues up until pretty recently and the Lakers, in foreign territory at 13-37, are trying different things, which explains why Kelly finds himself a 6-11 small forward.

He's making it work.

Against Orlando, Kelly had 20 points, including a 15-point third quarter outburst. Coach Byron Scott was pleased: "He got himself open, he was much more active offensively. That's the Ryan Kelly that we've been waiting for."

Things should get somewhat better for the Lakers for next year. Kelly returns, Julius Randle should be ready to go, and L.A. has a lottery pick. NBADraft.net's current board lists them as taking Ohio State's D'Angelo Russell at #5, but the top five players are Duke's Jahlil Okafor, the prize of this draft, Emmanuel Mudiay, last seen in China, Arizona's Stanley Johnson, nephew of former Celtic Dennis Johnson, Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns.

So that pick should improve the team overall, as should a healthy Randle and Kelly.