Los Angeles Lakers: Players worth trading a first-round pick for
By Jason Reed
With the Los Angeles Lakers missing the playoffs for the sixth consecutive year, the focus has already shifted to the offseason and the 2019 NBA Draft.
The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to put the team’s postseason drought to rest despite welcoming LeBron James in his first season in LA and have officially missed the postseason for the sixth consecutive season.
This has been a disappointing year for the Lakers, who did not experience the extremely quick turnaround that was expected of the team when they landed LeBron James. To be fair to the Lakers, literally nothing has gone right in terms of injuries.
If this team stayed healthy throughout the entire year there should not be a doubt in anyone’s mind that this is a playoff team. A starting five of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma and JaVale McGee is even good enough to win a playoff series.
However, that obviously is not the reality and instead, the focus is now on the offseason and the 2019 NBA Draft. The Lakers were primed to enter tank mode to shoot up the draft order but two consecutive wins derailed that tank train.
Right now the Lakers are tied for the 10th-worst record in the league with an 11.7 percent chance of landing a top-four pick, per Tankathon.
We are going to assume that the Lakers get the 10th overall pick but do not want to use it on an inexperienced rookie and instead want to trade it. While the pick would be a nice addition in a trade package for a star, it alone is not going to be able to sway a team, like the Pelicans, to trade Anthony Davis.
There are players that would be worth trading that 10th overall pick for, even if it is a one-for-one trade. Here are those players.