One thing Los Angeles Lakers fans have criticized their favorite team for in recent years is not being aggressive enough in making trades to improve the roster — or for making aggressive but ill-advised trades, such as the one for Russell Westbrook nearly five years ago.
The Westbrook trade, as well as the trade in February 2023 that got rid of him, cost the Lakers a lot of depth and two first-round draft picks. As a result, they haven’t had the trade capital to successfully pull off multiple trades to get into the upper echelon of the NBA.
But the league recently made a move that should help the team pull off a consequential trade this summer by revamping its draft lottery system. The new system, which has been called the “3-2-1 lottery,” dramatically flattens the odds of getting the No. 1 pick for the team that participates in the lottery in order to address allegations of tanking. Now, every team that doesn’t reach the playoffs, other than the teams with the three worst records in the NBA, will each get three lottery balls. The squads that finish ninth and 10th in their conference will get two balls each, and the teams that lose the play-in tournament game between the seventh and eighth-place teams will get one ball apiece.
This means that the Lakers’ future first-round draft picks suddenly have substantially more value on the open market. Per league rules, they can offer up to two future first-rounders in a trade this offseason, and if they give up two such picks, those picks will be for the 2031 and 2033 drafts.
The value of those picks could be even higher because of a certain line of thinking about Luka Doncic. Many feel that because he started playing pro basketball as a teen in Europe, his body will soon start breaking down and he will be rendered over the hill as soon as his early 30s. Some also have similar concerns about Austin Reaves, who had an injury-riddled 2025-26 season and was reportedly playing on a toe sprain in last year’s playoffs.
Doncic is 27 years of age, and Reaves just turned 28. If both will indeed start declining noticeably shortly after turning 30, the Lakers could possibly just barely miss the playoffs in 2031 or 2033, or at least be merely a play-in team. That would mean that their first-round picks in either year could give some lucky team a real shot at the No. 1 pick in the land. At a minimum, it could give that team a fairly high lottery pick and fetch a very good player, if not an All-Star.
Los Angeles has seemed very reluctant to trade a future first-round draft pick unless it will receive a bona fide star in return. Now that Doncic has entered his prime, and with LeBron James’ career quickly winding down, the time is now for the franchise to adjust that type of attitude. The time is now for it to build a championship team around Doncic and possibly even start a new glorious era centered around its newest franchise player.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: The Lakers suddenly have more ammunition to use in a potential trade
Reporting by Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire / LeBron Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Marvi, LeBron Wire | USA TODAY Network
