NBA Rumors: Lakers Stand On Trading First Round Picks

The Los Angeles Lakers are rumored to have made their stand on whether they should trade their first-round picks. On the January 3rd episode of "The Crossover" podcast, Howard Beck of Sports Illustrated revealed that he heard rumblings that the Lakers were told not to deal their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks.

"I’ve heard rumblings, and they’re only rumblings," said Beck. "So I don’t want people to go too far with this or go crazy with the aggregation, but a couple people around the league have told me in recent weeks that they believe that the front office has essentially been told not to trade the picks, that they’re guarding those.”

Those two picks have been floated around in plenty of trade packages the Lakers could use to bring in more help for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Los Angeles is reportedly only willing to part ways with the valuable draft picks should they be able to land a third star that could put the Lakers in a better position to contend.

The Lakers don't have much flexibility with their roster right now and don't have other attractive pieces to pull off a blockbuster deal at this point. Those two picks are perhaps their most valuable assets currently, but could be their only ticket to turn the franchise around.

Los Angeles currently sits at 13th in the Western Conference standings with a 16-21 mark, sharing the same record with the Oklahoma City Thunder. They are 1.5 games behind the 10th seed Utah Jazz for the final spot in the play-in tournament.

The Lakers are also currently without superstar big man Anthony Davis, who is out with a foot injury. LeBron James has been carrying the load for the Purple and Gold franchise over the past week.

In his last two games, James, who just celebrated his 38th birthday on December 30, dropped 47 points and 43 points, respectively, to lead the Lakers to back-to-back wins.