Over the past four years, the Lakers haven’t had the luxury of retraining their first-round pick in the NBA draft. Those picks were mostly used as trade assets in exchange for acquiring the likes of Anthony Davis (in 2019), Dennis Schröder (in 2020), and Russell Westbrook (in 2021).
In last year’s draft, Los Angeles even had to negotiate with the Orlando Magic in order to acquire Max Christie's 35th overall in the second round by giving up a future second-round pick and additional cash. Not having a first-round or even second-round pick for multiple years isn’t uncommon for a team built to contend for championships within a time frame, especially if they’ve constantly had to shake up their roster every year like the Lakers have.