Lakers Rumors on Future Draft Pick Value Revealed amid 2026 Trade Deadline Buzz

The Los Angeles Lakers may not have the ability to make a big splash at the trade deadline because their future draft picks aren't as appealing to opposing teams as they once were.

Per The Athletic's Dan Woike, the Lakers' next tradable first-round pick is considered "less valuable" now in the wake of the Luka Dončić addition and Mark Walters' purchase of the franchise.

The Dončić part of the equation is easy to figure out. He was in the discussion as one of the five best players in the NBA at the time of the trade with the Dallas Mavericks, and he is only 26 years old.

Walters, whose majority stake in the franchise was approved on Oct. 30, still has to prove what type of NBA team owner he will be, but Woike highlighted his MLB credentials as a big reason for optimism:

"The belief is that since Walter has proven to be an effective owner with the Los Angeles Dodgers, that he and whoever he entrusts the franchise to will, at minimum, keep it from the kind of freefall that would truly make that future first-round pick less of a lottery ticket."

The Lakers have their first-round selection in either 2031 or '32 available to trade right now, but a pick that far out for a franchise with Dončić isn't likely to end up being very high.

For instance, the Mavs only finished under .500 in two of their six full seasons with Dončić. The first was his rookie season when they finished 33-49, a nine win improvement from the previous year.

The second was a 38-44 record in 2022-23 when he missed 16 games and the organization did a hard reset midway through the year by acquiring Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets.

Austin Reaves could also factor into the equation for Los Angeles because he has played so well to start this season, increasing his value to the franchise before he can potentially become a free agent next summer if he opts out of his contract.

Anything that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka looks to do leading up to the Feb. 5 trade deadline will almost certainly be geared toward improving the defense. They currently rank 21st in defensive rating, making them the only team with a winning record outside the top 20 in that category.

Of the six teams at least 10 games over .500 at this point, the Lakers are sixth in net rating (plus-1.3). None of the other five teams have a net rating worse than plus-4.2.

Woike cited Herb Jones of the New Orleans Pelicans as someone being bantered about as a trade option for the Lakers, but he noted the Pelicans "almost certainly" wouldn't engage in talks because all that L.A. could offer is a package built around expiring contracts and one first-round pick.

It's certainly not a bad thing for opposing teams to think the Lakers will be too good in the future for their draft picks to have any significant value. It just makes their attempts to make any potential in-season upgrades for the 2025-26 team more difficult now that they have started to show some cracks in the armor with three losses in their last five games.