The Los Angeles Lakers enter the 2026 offseason with a ton of cap space, tradable draft picks, and flexibility to build out a championship team around Luka Doncic. Rob Pelinka has done an excellent job in trades and with free agent signings over the last several years, but continues to let fans down when the NBA Draft rolls around.
The Lakers are slotted in at 25th overall in June's draft. It's time for Pelinka to break out of his slump and make this year's first-round selection really matter.
LA's last two first-round selections were both at 17 back in 2024 and 2023. Three years ago, they selected freshman guard Jalen Hood-Schifino out of Indiana. In 2024, they took Dalton Knecht out of Tennessee.
Knecht wasn't a miss from day one the way Hood-Schifino was, as he is still in LA, unlike his counterpart, who has struggled to stay on an NBA roster since his rookie season. Although I'm of the minority that still believes in Knecht and thinks he can be a contributor in a change of scenery, Hood-Schifino is the purest form of a bust.
Those two misses have helped hold the Lakers back from being contenders. When you're trying to compete, finding quality rotational pieces in the mid-first round can help keep a window open, and LA hasn't done that.
Rob Pelinka needs to make the 2026 NBA Draft matter
Pelinka needs to enter this year's draft with a much more grounded approach than he's taken in years past.
With Doncic likely to be once again surrounded by the duo of LeBron James and Austin Reaves, LA doesn't need upside—they need impact. It calls for someone who can come in, even if it's a role as the ninth or 10th man, and have an impact from the opening tip of the 2026-27 season.
In that mid-20s range that LA is slotted to draft in, there are a ton of centers expected to be on the board. While that is one of the Lakers' biggest areas of need, they should not hyper-fixate on the position.
Anyone who follows the draft closely knows every year someone falls, and then boards are flipped on their heads as teams start to scramble. This is why Pelinka and the rest of LA's front office need to enter the draft open-minded and with a focus on taking the best player on the board and someone who is NBA-ready from day one.
The Lakers already have a project they are trying to develop and grow into something special on their bench with Adou Thiero. They don't need another player like that.
With plenty of holes and areas of need, the Lakers have to nail this draft pick to have a successful offseason.
Don't get me wrong, LA should and will likely be among the top spenders in free agency this summer, but free agency can only address so much. If Pelinka can hit on a prospect with the 25th pick, the rest of the Lakers' summer becomes that much easier.
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