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The Los Angeles Lakers haven't kept their own first-round pick since the 2018 NBA Draft, and now, it appears as though they are weighing their options with the No. 17 overall pick. According to ESPN's Jonathan Givony, the Lakers are looking into trade scenarios for their first-round pick, particularly with teams that have multiple picks to deal. This would indicate that the Lakers are considering moving down in the draft.

That makes plenty of sense for them on several levels. The Lakers have a stellar track record of making picks in the 20s and 30s, with Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Ivica Zubac and Larry Nance Jr. all coming in that range. Getting multiple players also helps the Lakers fill out a currently thin roster, as D'Angelo Russell, Dennis Schroder, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and Lonnie Walker IV are all free agents this offseason.

Several teams stand out as possibilities to make this sort of trade depending on what the Lakers are looking for:

  • The Pacers have picks No. 26, 29 and 32.
  • The Hornets have picks No. 27, 34 and 39.
  • The Nets have picks No. 21 and 22.
  • The Kings have picks No. 24 and 38.

The Lakers have uneasy trading relationships with a few of those teams. They negotiated a trade with the Pacers for Myles Turner and Buddy Hield over the course of several months last season, but never pulled the trigger. In 2021, they nearly traded Kuzma to the Kings for Hield, but backed out at the last second to acquire Russell Westbrook. In addition, it is unclear which of these teams might be looking to move up in the draft.

This is an extremely deep draft class, the Lakers have one of the NBA's best scouting departments, and with the new CBA making it far harder to spend freely, adding cheap talent is going to be extremely important moving forward. With all of that in mind, turning one pick into a few makes plenty of sense for the Lakers if the right deal ultimately presents itself.