Cliff Alexander Suffers Knee Injury in Pre-Draft Workout With Lakers

The hits keep on coming for Cliff Alexander. First he struggled with injuries and a (somewhat perplexing) lack of playing time. Then came the potential NCAA violation surrounding an alleged loan taken out by Cliff's mother. Now, with his draft stock already falling, Alexander hurt his knee in a predraft workout with the Los Angeles Lakers.

It's not yet known what the severity of the injury is, but I can imagine it will keep Cliff out of working out for NBA teams for at least a couple weeks regardless of how severe the injury is. With the NBA draft taking place on June 25, Alexander needs to get in as many workouts as he can. Impressive as Alexander's tempo free stats are, the relative lack of film on him doesn't bode well when looking at Alexander vs other potential options at the back end of the first round.

Before the injury, I thought Cliff could sneak into the bottom half of the first round thanks to his dominant high school career and somewhat rare skillset. If the injury is any way severe, however, it's hard to peg how far he'll fall. Just another example of the Lakers ruining everything.