Los Angeles can float first-round picks all it wants, but Dallas has little reason to move one of its few long-term frontcourt pieces for a package that does not change the franchise’s future.
Lakers insider Jovan Buha floated a trade idea this week that would send two first-round picks from Los Angeles to Dallas in exchange for Dereck Lively II. Buha framed it as a realistic ask given the right price, suggesting Dallas would need two first-round picks, potentially including the 2025 pick and a future selection, to even consider moving on from him.
“There’s just certain guys that you’re not giving up, almost regardless of what the price, the ask is,” Buha said Sunday. “Lively is not on that tier or that level, so I would say he is gettable.”
There is a version of this conversation where two first-round picks for a center who has missed 148 games over three seasons sounds like fair value. That version ignores how this front office actually views Lively and how realistic the Lakers’ offer would be in practice.
Start with what Los Angeles can actually put on the table. This has nothing to do with lingering resentment over the Luka Doncic trade. It has to do with the fact that the Lakers do not currently possess the kind of draft capital that moves the needle for a rebuilding organization.
Two first-round picks from a roster built to win now arround Doncic are not the same asset as two first-round picks from a team with a long runway and elite lottery odds. Whatever selections Los Angeles could attach to a Lively offer are likely to land in the back half of the first round for the foreseeable future.
The bigger issue is how Dallas views Lively internally. Despite the injury history, the organization has consistently treated him as a foundational piece of the frontcourt rather than a trade chip. He is averaging 8.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game through his first 98 NBA games while shooting 72.5% from the field, numbers that place him among the most efficient young bigs in basketball when healthy.
His 7-foot-9 wingspan and above-the-rim finishing ability make him exactly the kind of vertical threat new head coach Dusty May has built his offenses around at every stop in his career.
Buha himself acknowledged that after Cooper Flagg, Lively is probably the second-most valued long-term asset in the building, which is the strongest argument against moving him that exists in his own reporting.
The injury concerns are worth monitoring, but the answer is patience and a contract structure that reflects shared risk, not a sale to a division rival for draft capital that does not solve a real roster problem. Dallas has bigger questions to answer this offseason. Trading away one of two long-term frontcourt pieces already in place is not one of them.
