Lakers Make Bold Trade with Bulls Ahead of Thursday Draft

The Los Angeles Lakers are doing their darnedest to steal the spotlight from everyone else this summer.

First, longtime L.A. owners the Buss family revealed that they were selling their 66% majority stake to minority owner Mark Walter for a team valuation of $10 billion — meaning Walter is essentially paying $6.6 billion for their portion of the 17-time champs.

Now, despite not even fielding a their own first round pick in Wednesday night's draft, the Lakers have made a splashy move yet again, re-centering the NBA conversation (however briefly) around themselves despite the buzzy early selections of lottery studs Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, V.J. Edgecomb, Kon Knueppel and Ace Bailey — plus the bizarre draft night trades made by the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans.

In the lead-up to the 2025 NBA draft's second round Thursday night, the Lakers have enacted a bold trade with the Chicago Bulls.

L.A. is clearly interested in adding some young talent under team control. 

Despite wrapping up the 2024-25 regular season with a 50-32 record and the Western Conference's No. 3 seed, the Lakers were quickly booted from the postseason by the younger, deeper, bigger Minnesota Timberwolves in a five-game first round encounter. Now, the Lakers are hoping to bring in young help to address that depth issue. And, perhaps, that size issue.