The Lakers will receive the No. 56 pick in tonight’s draft from the Bulls, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). L.A. will send cash to Chicago in return.
The Lakers have $4.7MM remaining under their cash limit for the current salary cap year, per Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Twitter link). Unless this trade gets pushed back to the 2026/27 league year, that money figures to be divided between this deal and Tuesday’s four-team trade that gave the Lakers the draft rights to Cameron Carr. The cash limit for every team will be reset to $8.5MM on July 1, Gozlan adds.
The Lakers become hard-capped at the second apron by sending out cash in these two draft trades, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link), but that’s not a huge concern because the team currently isn’t close to that threshold and likely won’t be by the time it’s done making moves.
L.A. is expected to try to move up even more before the night is through, suggests Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (Twitter link). Siegel has the Lakers taking George Washington center Rafael Castro at No. 56 in his latest mock draft, while ESPN’s Jeremy Woo projects the pick to be South Florida forward Izaiyah Nelson.
