The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t exactly loaded with draft capital in the upcoming 2025 NBA Draft, which is scheduled for Wednesday (first round) and Thursday (second round) this week. Across both rounds of the draft, the Lakers own only one pick at this juncture, and that’s the No. 55 overall pick.
Interestingly enough, the Lakers had that very same pick in the 2024 NBA Draft and used that pick on star forward LeBron James’ son Bronny.
The Lakers don’t own their first-round pick this year as a result of the trade they made with the New Orleans Pelicans for big man Anthony Davis several years ago. However, the Atlanta Hawks have the Lakers’ pick after they acquired the selection when they moved guard Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans.
Despite the storied franchise’s limited draft capital, the Lakers have worked out plenty of players and have been linked to players in various mock drafts. Let’s take a look at all of them.
Players who have worked out with the Lakers
More than 20 players have participated in pre-draft workouts with the Lakers thus far.
Izan Almansa
Almansa, a 6-foot-10 forward, averaged 7.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game in a complementary role with the Perth Wildcats of Australia’s NBL league in the 2024-25 campaign. Before his cup of coffee with the Wildcats, he spent the 2023-24 season with the G League Ignite and started 30 of the 32 regular-season games he played in.
Cole Anderson
The former University of California, Santa Barbara standout was one of the premier 3-point shooters in the nation last season, as he shot 47.4 percent from deep on 5.0 attempts per contest in his senior campaign. He is somewhat of a one-trick pony, however, considering he didn’t contribute in many other areas of the game outside of spacing the floor.
Oumar Ballo
Ballo has a traditional offensive skill set for a big man in the sense that he makes his hay at the rim, and he led his entire conference in field-goal percentage in the 2024-25 season with Indiana University Bloomington. He shot 62.3 percent from the field and also made his presence felt on the glass, as he pulled down 9.1 boards per contest.
Lamont Butler
Butler provided steady scoring and playmaking hands for a great University of Kentucky squad a season ago. He led the Wildcats in assists per game (4.3) and averaged 11.4 points per game while shooting 39.1 percent from 3-point range.
Dylan Cardwell
The big man didn’t wow people with his offensive repertoire at the collegiate level, but he could mold into an impactful player at the highest level due to his willingness to do the dirty work to help his team win. Cardwell averaged 9.9 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots per 40 minutes in the 2024-25 collegiate season.
Cesare Edwards
After an unspectacular first three seasons of college basketball, Edwards enjoyed a breakout campaign as a senior. He averaged 16.2 points per game with Georgia State University and scored the ball with fantastic efficiency, as he shot 51.0 percent from the field and 43.5 percent from 3-point range.
Mouhamed Faye
Faye isn’t one of the more well-known players on this list, as he has spent the last two seasons playing professional basketball overseas in Italy. He was productive on both ends of the floor with the LBA’s Reggio Emilia last season, however, as he averaged 10.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocked shots per game.
Dajuan Harris Jr.
Harris might just be the best playmaker on this list, as he displayed a knack for setting up his teammates for scores across his collegiate career at the University of Kansas. He averaged 5.0 assists per game in his five seasons at Kansas and dished out as many as 6.5 per contest in a single season.
C.J. Huntley
It took Huntley until his fifth and final season of college basketball to finally average double digits in points per game, but he has a real knack for putting the ball through the net, especially from inside the 3-point line. For his college career, he shot 62.1 percent from inside the line.
Samson Johnson
It’s possible the forward’s biggest appeal as a player is how efficiently he scored the ball during his four-season stint at the University of Connecticut. Johnson shot 72.8 percent from the field across 99 total games played with the Huskies (42 starts).
TY Johnson
Johnson is not lacking in confidence as a scorer, as the guard averaged 18.5 shot attempts per contest with the University of California, Davis in the 2024-25 season. However, he didn’t prove that he has what it takes to score the ball efficiently at such a high volume, considering he shot 38.7 percent from the field and 28.1 percent from deep.
Miles Kelly
Kelly spent his swan song at the collegiate level playing for an Auburn University team that was one of the best in the nation. The squad almost won a national championship, and Kelly averaged 11.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game in 38 total appearances with the Tigers.
R.J. Luis Jr.
Luis was one of the premier guards in all of college basketball with St. John’s University thanks to his scoring and rebounding chops. He contributed 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game and led his conference in total two-point field-goal attempts.
Patrick McCaffery
The forward spent a lot of time honing his game at the collegiate level, as he spent six seasons playing for two teams, and he’s developed a capable 3-point shot after it wasn’t quite in his arsenal to start his college tenure. After he didn’t shoot better than 34.3 percent from deep in any of his first five seasons of college basketball, he shot 41.6 percent from 3-point range with Butler University in the 2024-25 season.
Isaac Nogues
Nogues is a unique talent in that he is a generalist and can do a little bit of everything out on the floor outside of scoring. In 25 regular-season games with the G League’s Rip City Remix in the 2024-25 season, he averaged 2.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.8 steals per game.
Norchad Omier
Omier was a double-double machine with Baylor University last season. He averaged 15.7 points and led his conference with 10.8 rebounds per contest as well. Omier played for three teams across his five seasons of college basketball and averaged 10-plus points and rebounds per game with every one of those squads.
Clifford Omoruyi
Omoruyi could be the best rim protector on this list, as he ranked tops in his entire conference in blocked shots per contest at one point of his collegiate tenure. He swatted away 2.9 shots per game in the 2023-24 season while playing at Rutgers University.
John Poulakidas
Poulakidas possesses elite touch on his outside jumper. He shot 40.8 percent from 3-point range in his senior campaign at Yale University and led his conference with a free-throw percentage of 89.7 percent across 27 starts.
Kadary Richmond
Richmond was a jack of all trades with St. John’s University in the 2024-25 college season and made his presence felt on both ends of the floor. He ranked among the top three on his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals per game.
Jaxson Robinson
Robinson is a talented scorer, but he’s not a very adept playmaker for someone at the guard position. He averaged nearly as many turnovers per game as assists (1.1 compared to 1.3) in his five seasons playing at the collegiate level.
Aaron Scott
Scott did not exactly show that he has the offensive skill set necessary to be successful on that end at the highest level across his four seasons of college basketball. He averaged just 7.7 points per game for his college career and never put up more than 11.0 points per contest in a single campaign.
A recent report indicates that Scott worked out with the Lakers just recently on Monday.
Ethan Taylor
Taylor, a crafty guard, led his conference in minutes per game with the United States Air Force Academy last season. He led the way for his team in both points and assists per contest.
Alex Toohey
Toohey is another player on this list with ties to the NBL, as the youngster appeared in 29 games with the Sydney Kings in the 2024-25 season and averaged 10.6 points per game while shooting 44.9 percent from the field.
Players linked to the Lakers in mock drafts
Viktor Lakhin
A recent NBA mock draft from ESPN’s Jeremy Woo and Jonathan Givony has the Lakers using their No. 55 pick on a former Clemson University big man and super senior. The Russian native averaged 11.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game in the 2024-25 campaign and displayed some improvement as a 3-point shooter as well compared to the previous season.
Eric Dixon
A mock draft from Bleacher Report back in May had the Lakers utilizing their one and only pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on a former University of Villanova star who led NCAA Division-I in scoring last season. Dixon averaged 23.3 points per game on 45.1 percent shooting from the field and 40.7 percent from 3-point range.
Vladislav Goldin
Draftnik Kevin O’Connor envisions the Lakers drafting the former University of Michigan star big man. Goldin has some room for improvement as a rebounder for a player of his stature, as he averaged just 6.0 per game for his college career and 7.0 with Michigan, but he was a highly effective interior scorer at the collegiate level.
Hunter Sallis
Woo and Givony had Sallis landing with the Lakers in an earlier iteration of a mock draft for ESPN. Sallis averaged 18-plus points per game while shooting 45-plus percent from the floor in each of his two seasons at Wake Forest University.
Mark Sears
The staff over at Sports Illustrated has predicted that the Lakers will draft the former University of Alabama guard. Sears was named an All-American in the 2023-24 season and 2024-25 campaign, and he averaged 20.1 points and 4.6 assists per game in that two-season span.
