Lakers News: LA's 2024 First Round Draft Pick Revealed

LA may be focusing on the draft sooner than it would prefer this year.

Mar 22, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka (l) confers with head coach Darvin Ham (r). / Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of some heartbreaking come-from-ahead losses to the Denver Nuggets, during what looks like an eerie repeat of their 2023 Western Conference Finals sweep to the reigning champs.

LA's 2024 offseason is also, suddenly, looking bizarrely similar to its 2023 campaign in another key way, too.

Per Jonathan Givony of Draft Express, a pre-draft tiebreaker has given the Lakers the No. 17 selection in this June's NBA draft. Incidentally, that's the same pick Los Angeles possessed last year, too. The Lakers used it to draft raw Indiana guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, who couldn't crack Darvin Ham's rotation before a surgery knocked him out near the end of the 2023-24 season.

Los Angeles president Rob Pelinka skipped over possible All-Rookie selections Jaime Jaquez Jr. of UCLA, Brandin Podziemski of Santa Clara, and Cam Whitmore of Virginia in making the selection.

The New Orleans Pelicans have the rights to either LA's 2024 or '25 pick. The team has until June 1st to make a determination. So should the New Orleans Pelicans so choose, they could also just take the pick for their own and let Los Angeles retain its 2025 pick. Given that this is a poorly-regarded draft, it seems most likely New Orleans will snag the '25 selection and allow Los Angeles to retain this pick.

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