Lakers trade for No. 36 pick, select Adou Thiero from Arkansas

The Lakers made a second trade on Thursday, moving up to the No. 36 pick to draft Arkansas wing Adou Thiero.

The Lakers wheeled and dealed their way to the top of the 2025 NBA Draft on Thursday.

Across two separate trades, the team moved up from the No. 55 pick to the No. 45 pick, then completed a second deal to select Adou Thiero from Arkansas with the No. 36.

Thiero is coming off a monster junior season with the Razorbacks, where he averaged 15.1 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 54.5% from the field. He was impactful defensively, swiping 1.6 steals per game.

Under head coach John Calipari, Thiero started in 26 of the 27 games he played in Arkansas. His points and steals more than doubled compared to his production the previous year.

He’s not much of a 3-point shooter. He attempted just 1.6 3-pointers per game and shot 25.6% on those attempts. For his career, he’s a 28.4% 3-point shooter on just 74 attempts across 72 career games.

He spent his first two underclassman years at Kentucky under Calipari as well. He had a smaller role with the Wildcats, averaging 7.2 points in 21.4 minutes per game during his sophomore season.

He followed Calipari to Arkansas and his game exploded this season.

Thiero had a season-high 26 points against Illinois in late November. In that 99-70 loss, he went 7-13 from the field, showcasing his athleticism and ability to put pressure on the rim.

Two games later, he scored 26 points on 8-10 shooting while going 10-13 at the line. He also grabbed 10 rebounds in that game. He had three double-doubles on the season.

Injury limited him at the end of the year as he played in just one postseason game and was a relative non-factor, seeing just five minutes of action.

Here is what Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report had to say about Thiero’s game:

The 21-year-old enters the league as a small forward boasting a 7-foot wingspan and the kind of athleticism that translates on both ends of the floor. He’s a relentless defender and rebounder, using his length to generate turnovers, erase shots at the rim and attack the glass.

Offensively, he’s most effective as a finisher, cutting off-ball, running in transition and rising above defenders at the rim. Thiero’s ceiling hinges on whether his perimeter shooting can catch up to the rest of his game.

Sam Vecenie of The Athletic ranked him 31st on his big board. Here’s some of what he had to say about Thiero:

Thiero has a case as the best athlete in the draft class. He’s remarkably explosive in addition to being powerfully built. If you squint, you can see a similar frame to those of Ausar and Amen Thompson. However, he’s not as explosive as those two, and he’s not as twitchy and reactive. Still, if you’re envisioning what Thiero’s stylistic impact on the game could be, it’s something similar to those two. It’s concerning that college teams felt like they could regularly play off him at the 3-point line, and ultimately that will be the key to Thiero figuring out a high-leverage NBA role.

Prior to the draft, Calipari was singing the praises of his starting forward on the “Pat McAfee Show”.

“Adou Thiero is a first-round draft pick and let me tell you why. I love the physicalness of the league right now because you got to work to get a basket. … Adou can play in a physical game and, athletically, be in the top 1%. He is somebody that, if you pass on him, they’ll look back and say, ‘How many people passed on him?’ He is that good and a good kid.”

President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka mentioned the team searching for defensive wings in the offseason. By drafting Thiero, they are banking on him being part of the solution to that need this offseason.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.