The Lakers find themselves in a precarious situation.
This year’s roster needs upgrades. However, Indiana doesn’t have much in the way of sweeteners to make those improvements. Misses on Jalen Hood-Schifino
and Dalton Knecht mean the young prospects aren’t there to put into trade packages and undoing the Russell Westbrook trade and making the deal for Luka Dončić depleted the team of their first round picks.
Simply put, the Lakers don’t have the means, as things stand, to make notable upgrades to this team.
That makes the recent report from Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports all the more intriguing. The Lakers appear to be looking to replicate a move made by Phoenix last year in which they would trade away a future unprotected first round pick for multiple first round picks of lesser value.
The Suns traded an unprotected 2031 pick to Utah in exchange for first rounders in 2025, 2027 and 2029. Those picks were the least favorable of Cleveland, Minnesota and Utah’s in each year, to give a sense of the types of picks the Lakers could see come back in a similar trade.
In theory, it makes a lot of sense for the position the Lakers are in. What the team needs now is some flexibility and the ability to make moves now that Luka is on the team. Optionality is one of President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka’s favorite words and the Lakers don’t have a ton of it when it comes to trades.
The problem is finding a team willing to do this type of deal. The list of teams with a plethora of picks and a willingness to play ball is short. Incredible short. In fact, after doing a bit of research, it feels like there are only about a handful of teams on paper who could be willing to make that type of deal.
Oklahoma City Thunder
This is the most obvious choice and if Pelinka is serious about this, he should be calling the Thunder daily. There’s an absolute trove of picks OKC could be willing to trade as, over the next two years, they have eight first round draft picks.
The problem is that most of the picks they own from other teams are actually valuable. In 2026, they have the Clippers’ and Sixers’ picks. In 2027, they have a pick swap with the Clippers and potentially the Spurs’ pick.
They do, however, have Denver’s first rounders in 2027 and 2029 and with Nikola Jokic going nowhere, those are prime picks to target.
Would a deal sending out the Lakers’ 2032 first round pick for 2027 and 2029 Nuggets first rounders and an OKC first round in that span work?
Brooklyn Nets
After OKC, the options are much less obvious and much slimmer. Brooklyn has a host of firsts, but they’re also a team that is not competitive right now.
That being said, it’s hard to figure out what the Nets’ plan is right now either. Sure, it’s to tank and acquire picks, but their selections with those picks in the last draft were some head scratchers.
Would they be open to consolidating some firsts after making so many picks in the 2025 draft? They own three future Knicks picks in 2027, 2029 and 2031, all picks likely to be at the end of the draft. They also own a 2032 Denver pick as well as the worst pick from Dallas, Houston and Phoenix in 2029.
On top of that, if they do trade Michael Porter Jr. this season or in the summer, that will certainly net them at least another first.
While they don’t have their 2027 pick, the bevy of picks they have at the end of upcoming first rounds could make them willing to do this sort of deal.
San Antonio Spurs
The final two teams really likely only make sense if the Lakers are looking to get back two firsts and perhaps some seconds, of which they only have one as things stand.
The Spurs have a bunch of picks, but a lot of them are going to be valuable, like Atlanta’s in 2026 and 2027, the Clippers’ in 2029 and Sacramento’s in 2031.
But there are two picks that are interesting in Boston’s 2028 first and the better of Dallas and Minnesota’s first in 2030. The fact that it’s the more favorable of those two teams makes it a little more unclear if they would include that pick, but they also could be a team confident enough in what they’re building, so long as Victory Wembanyama is around, that they’d include their own pick.
Utah Jazz
Negotiating with Danny Ainge sounds like a punishment that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies, but despite being the team that did this type of deal recently, Utah still has enough picks to potentially do another version of it.
It would, again, be a lesser version, but Utah does own Cleveland’s first in 2028 and the better of Cleveland and Minnesota’s picks in 2029. Those picks are probably a bit too good to be included in this deal, but it also shows how few teams may be willing or able to do this kind of deal and the challenges Pelinka will face in completing it.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
