The Los Angeles Lakers have moved first-round picks as aggressively as any team in recent memory, trading three of them in the last week across two deals for Luka Doncic and Mark Williams. This is in addition to picks they have traded in the past when they were surrounding LeBron James and Anthony Davis with talent.
The Lakers have seen their pool of future assets shrink drastically in recent weeks, with only two first-rounders currently in their control. Even those two picks cannot be traded unprotected, with the Lakers restricted by the Stepien Rule which doesn’t allow teams to trade first-round picks in back-to-back years.
With the confusion around what picks the Lakers have in their control going forward, let’s take a look at their current pick pool.
Currently controlled picks:
– 2025 First-Round Pick (originally to Pelicans, now to Hawks)
– 2026 First-Round Pick (own)
– 2027 First-Round Pick (1-4 Lakers, 5-30 to Jazz)
– 2028 First-Round Pick (own)
– 2029 First-Round Pick (To Mavericks)
– 2030 First-Round Pick (Swap, favorable to Hornets)
– 2031 First-Round Pick (to Hornets)
Now, let’s take a look at all the first-round picks the Lakers have traded so far:
The Lakers first-round pick for the 2025 NBA Draft is owned by the Atlanta Hawks, who received the pick from the New Orleans Pelicans in the summer in the Dejounte Murray trade. This pick ended up with the Pelicans as part of the Anthony Davis trade in 2019.
The Lakers 2027 first-round pick is top-four protected and is currently controlled by the Utah Jazz. They received this pack for facilitating the Russell Westbrook camp dump ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.
The 2029 first-round pick was recently sent to the Mavericks for Luka Doncic while the 2030 swap and the 2031 pick were sent to the Hornets for Mark Williams.
Funnily, the Lakers refused to trade their 2031 pick to the Mavericks for Doncic after the franchise didn’t let Rob Pelinka speak to Doncic’s representatives before making the trade. This worked out perfectly, as the assets they didn’t send Dallas became the assets that helped them land Williams.
The Lakers can trade their 2026 and 2028 picks immediately if they choose to, but only as a pick swap ensuring that they get some other team’s pick from the same draft.
Swaps aren’t as valuable as an unprotected or even a lightly-protected pick, because then they aren’t as conditional. Nonetheless, these could be used for upgrades. Lakers can trade the 2026, 2028, and 2030 post-swap picks on Draft night of the respective drafts they’re supposed to convey.
It’s important to remember that the Lakers can’t simply dump all their future picks in haste to build a contender around Doncic and LeBron James. While they have a better picture of the future after LeBron retires knowing that Doncic is on the franchise, they need to keep asset flexibility if they need to make more trades down the line to support their Slovenian superstar with talent.
They’ve made the right move by aggressively moving off some of their picks now with the comfort of knowing Doncic should still be in his prime when those picks are going to convey.
The franchise should be careful about what they’ll do with the few picks in their control still, as adding talent through the Draft under cost-controlled contracts could be a huge resource as well.
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