Masai Ujiri's bold Tobi Lawal comparison hints Mavericks found a hidden gem

Second-round picks are often like blindly throwing darts at a dartboard and hoping for the best. Sure, you'll get some bullseyes, but most of the time, you won't even hit the board. Nonetheless, the Dallas Mavericks' newly appointed president of basketball operations, Masai Ujiri, made a bold comparison involving one of the team's second-round picks that hints Dallas may have hit a bullseye.

Ujiri reportedly told Tobi Lawal, the Mavericks' 48th overall pick, during the pre-draft process that he reminds him of two-time NBA champion OG Anunoby. This was a player who Ujiri drafted during his time with the Toronto Raptors, and if anyone should have a good feeling for the type of player Lawal can grow into, it's Ujiri.

Why the OG Anunoby comparison is such high praise for Tobi Lawal

It's definitely some high praise for a late second-rounder, considering Anunoby was arguably the second-best player on the reigning NBA champion New York Knicks. The 29-year-old swingman capped one of the best seasons of his career by averaging 21.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals, 1.4 blocks, and 3.2 made 3-pointers per game in the NBA Finals.

Anunoby is perhaps the epitome of a 3-and-D wing — a forward who can lock down the opposing team's best player while knocking down 3-pointers at a high clip. However, as evidenced by his 21.2 points per game in the NBA Finals, he's much more than your typical 3-and-D wing.

Thus, that makes Ujiri's pre-draft comparison even bolder, especially for a player like Lawal, who is coming off a senior season at Virginia in which he averaged 12.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 0.3 steals, 0.6 blocks, and 0.5 3-pointers per game.

As you can tell from Lawal's raw counting stats, he still has a long way to go. For instance, he never made more than 25 3-pointers in any of his four collegiate seasons and totaled just 54 steals across 116 career games.

But here's the catch: Anunoby averaged just 6.8 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.0 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 0.5 3-pointers per game across two seasons at Indiana. Envisioning Anunoby as a borderline All-Star took plenty of imagination when he entered the league as a still-developing 19-year-old wing coming off season-ending knee surgery. Even then, projecting him that highly was probably a stretch, which is why he fell to No. 23 in the 2017 NBA Draft.

Lawal has the physical tools to make Ujiri's vision a reality

Lawal is a tad older as a prospect at 23 years old, so he may not have the same intrigue as Anunoby did coming out of Indiana. However, Ujiri's comparison is ultimately valid. The two wings' measurements are similar, with Lawal being slightly taller, while Anunoby owns the longer wingspan and weighs roughly 20 pounds more. However, where Anunoby has the edge physically, Lawal boasts elite athletic gifts, namely a 45.5-inch max vertical leap.

If Lawal develops his 3-pointer, the comparison will become even more apt. While the proposition may seem far-fetched right now, especially after he shot just 23.1 percent from 3-point range in Summer League, it's far from impossible.

All in all, Ujiri's pre-draft comparison hints that the Mavericks may have unearthed a hidden gem. Of course, calling Lawal the next Anunoby would be unfair to both players, considering how good Anunoby has become. However, if Lawal can develop into even a fraction of the player Anunoby is, Dallas will have nailed its 48th pick.

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