{"id":466021,"date":"2026-02-08T07:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466021\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:48:08","slug":"ex-1st-round-pick-kobe-bufkin-rejoining-lakers-sources-say-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466021\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-1st-round pick Kobe Bufkin rejoining Lakers, sources say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dave McMenaminFeb 8, 2026, 01:07 AM ET<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>Lakers and NBA reporter for ESPN.
\nCovered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14, the Cavaliers from 2014-18 for ESPN.com and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09.<\/p>\n

Multiple Authors<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES — The Lakers<\/a> are signing former No. 15 pick Kobe Bufkin<\/a> to a two-year deal, with a team option for the 2026-27 season, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Bufkin has starred for Los Angeles’ South Bay G League affiliate and now rejoins the Lakers in his third NBA season to fill their 15th roster spot.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Bufkin, 22, previously signed a 10-day contract with the Lakers in January and averaged 3.0 points and 1.3 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game across four contests. He also played for the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> on a 10-day contract in November.<\/p>\n

He was a standout for South Bay, averaging 24.7 points on 49.6% overall (43.1% from 3) with 4.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game.<\/p>\n

Bufkin, a 6-foot-4 guard, was the Atlanta Hawks’ No. 15 pick in the 2023 NBA draft.<\/p>\n

After only appearing in 27 games in his first two seasons with the Hawks, he was traded to the Brooklyn Nets<\/a> for cash considerations in September and waived by Brooklyn in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave McMenaminFeb 8, 2026, 01:07 AM ET CloseLakers and NBA reporter for ESPN. Covered the Lakers and NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-466021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}