The Lakers and Mavericks have made a minor trade late in the second round of the draft, with Los Angeles agreeing to send the rights to No. 56 overall pick Vsevolod Ishchenko to Dallas, per Dan Woike of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The Lakers, who agreed to acquire the pick from Chicago for cash earlier in the night, will receive cash back by flipping it to Dallas, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link). Presumably, Los Angeles liked the price to acquire the pick prior to the draft and hoped to land a particular player, but ultimately decided not to use the selection by the time the team was on the clock.

It’s worth noting that Los Angeles was linked by multiple reporters to North Carolina big man Henri Veesaar, whom the Hawks drafted at No. 52 after acquiring his rights from the Clippers. Atlanta moved up from No. 57 to add the Estonian center, leapfrogging the Lakers.

The Lakers were hard-capped at the second apron when they acquired the 56th pick in the first place, and now the Mavericks will be too. That’s of little concern for Dallas, which isn’t even close to the tax line at the moment, let alone the second apron.

Ishchenko, a Russian wing, averaged 8.7 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.0 APG and 1.3 SPG on .506/.451/.781 shooting in 48 games (23.6 MPG) this past season for Lokomotiv Kuban. He brings and interesting combination of size (6’8″, 220 pounds) and versatility for a wing  and obviously shot the ball very well in Russia in 2025/26.

At 21 years old, Ischenko has plenty of time to keep improving. It’s unclear if Dallas plans to sign him right away or simply wanted to secure his draft rights. He was ranked No. 54 on ESPN’s final big board before the draft.