The 2024–25 Los Angeles Lakers season will be the 78th season of the franchise, its 77th season in the National Basketball Association (NBA), its 65th season in Los Angeles, and its 26th season playing home games at Crypto.com Arena. On May 3, 2024, the Lakers fired head coach Darvin Ham and all of their assistant coaches, including Phil Handy, who had been with the team since their 2020 championship season.[2] On June 24, 2024, the Lakers hired JJ Redick as their new head coach. They will enter the season as the defending NBA Cup champions.
^New Orleans exercised its right to defer the conveyance of this pick until 2025.[3]
The Lakers will enter this draft (which will be two days long instead of just one day long like it previously has been since the NBA draft was shortened down to two rounds in 1989) with a first-round pick and a second-round pick.[4][5] On the first night of the draft, the Lakers selected small forward Dalton Knecht from the University of Tennessee with the first round pick that was conveyed to the Lakers after the New Orleans Pelicans decided to defer it back to the Lakers in exchange for the Lakers' 2025 first-round pick through a previous trade they made. Then, on the second day of the draft, the Lakers would select University of Southern California guard Bronny James, the son of current Lakers player LeBron James, with the 55th pick of the draft.