Shams: Lakers 'Moving in a Direction' Where They'll 'Resist' Trading 1st-Round Picks

The Los Angeles Lakers don't exactly have a slew of first-round draft picks at their disposal, which may limit their ability to make a major trade in an effort to turn their season around after a 2-8 start.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium explained the Purple and Gold only have two more of their own first-round picks for the rest of the decade (2027 and 2029) and will be hesitant to trade them in a deal to improve a team that may be a lost cause anyway.

"They're probably looking at marginal changes around the edges at best," Charania reported. "… The organization seems to be moving in a direction where they're going to resist moving first-round picks if the season continues to go down this path."

It seemed almost inevitable that the Lakers would trade Russell Westbrook this offseason, but a deal never materialized. There were reports the team had no interest in attaching one of those picks to Westbrook in a trade, which surely impacted interest.

Now Los Angeles has reached a point where the veteran point guard is actually playing well in his sixth-man role off the bench even though the team is losing.

But things aren't clicking overall on the court, and the result is separate losing streaks of five and three games on the way to an ugly first 10 contests. A championship run seems like the longest of long shots even with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and it may take more than peripheral moves to even reach the playoffs.

That Los Angeles' front office wouldn't be particularly interested in mortgaging even more of its future by trading those picks should come as no surprise.

After all, James turns 38 years old in December, Westbrook is under contract through just this season and Davis has dealt with durability concerns a number of times even ahead of his 30th birthday in March.

The franchise will have to start thinking about building a new core in the future, and moving one or both of those first-round picks in a desperate trade to try to salvage what may be a lost cause in 2022-23 would undercut those efforts.

That means Los Angeles fans may be stuck watching the playoffs without their team for the second straight season.