For months, the Los Angeles Lakers have been the subject of countless trade rumors, and many of those rumors have centered around two of the team’s future draft picks.
Those picks, of course, are the Lakers’ 2027 and 2029 first-round selections. As it turns out, all of those rumors may have been for nothing, as a new report points to the possibility that the Lakers have no intentions of moving either of those future picks.
”They obviously are not willing to trade the picks,” Howard Beck reported. “And I’ve heard rumblings — and they’re only rumblings, 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.”
Obviously, this would come as unwelcome news to a lot of individuals related to the Lakers organization. Perhaps the most disappointed people would be superstars Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
So far this season, both players have looked downright dominant at times. There is no question that the two still have what it takes to lead the right roster to a championship.
But the unfortunate reality is that the Lakers roster as it currently stands is simply not talented enough to accomplish such a goal. For many, the hope up to this point was that the Lakers would try to use those two picks to add serious talent and depth to the roster.
At this point, it’s unclear if that possibility is still on the table.
The whole situation is likely a hard pill to swallow for James specifically. At 38 years old, his time is running out to add more championships to his current four. NBA fans have expressed a lot of anger toward the Lakers organization for essentially wasting what time James has left in the league.
If the team is unwilling to trade one or both of those picks, it’s hard to imagine that any major moves will be made prior to the trade deadline. That would make it quite likely that the Lakers would miss out on the playoffs for a second consecutive year.
