The biggest obstacle for the Los Angeles Lakers in acquiring a 3-and-D wing via trade in the coming weeks is their lack of tradeable assets. Not only do they lack players with perceived value on the open market, but they also now only have one future first-round pick available for trade per NBA rules.
The league’s “Steph Rule” prohibits teams from trading future first-round picks in consecutive years. Therefore, the Lakers can only trade a 2031 or 2032 first-round pick between now and the February 5 trade deadline.
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But according to Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! NBA sports world, they’re trying a smart way to give themselves more tradable first-round picks. Los Angeles is reportedly looking to trade one of its currently tradable first-round picks for multiple first-round picks that could then be used in another trade.
“That’s what I’m hearing about the Lakers. For the Lakers, the rumor is they’re trying to package Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent together on a wing. Now, what’s really interesting for them is they’ve been shopping multiple first-round picks around a future 2032 first-round pick. Something like that. [Phoenix] A year ago, the Suns traded the 2031 draft pick to the Jazz in exchange for three smaller No. 1 picks in ’25, ’27 and ’29. So it looks like the Lakers are looking for two or three worse firsts than their future first to give them more pieces to put together, like Vincent plus Vanderbilt, or Vincent plus Vanderbilt [Maxi] Kleber type encapsulation. The Lakers are definitely looking for a wing player, I think they are definitely interested in Herb Jones, probably too expensive, Trey Murphy, [Jonathan] Maybe Kuminga. maybe [Golden State] With the Warriors as a third team, maybe we’ll see a situation where Kuminga is sent to the Lakers for a complementary player and a draft pick, and then the Warriors add that pick to other assets to get P.J. (Washington) or Trey Murphy or something like that. But here’s my understanding of the Lakers’ future draft picks and players on their current roster right now. “
Considering the value of future draft picks around the league, completing a trade like this could immediately increase Los Angeles’ chances of landing a two-way wing player like Jones or even Kuminga.
The consensus is that the team is, at worst, one or two 3-and-D wings away from being a championship contender. The team currently has a record of 24 wins and 14 losses, ranking fifth in the Western Conference. It has lost 10 of the last 19 games.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers looking to acquire multiple first-round picks
