It's been a quick and odd career path so far for the 2023 No. 15 overall pick, Kobe Bufkin.
Bufkin, who was an Atlanta Hawks first-rounder, was waived by the Brooklyn Nets before this season. He was traded to the Nets in September and was cut in October.
Now, Bufkin has his next basketball stop. He's set to join the South Bay Lakers in the G League, the affiliate of the Los Angeles Lakers.
"The South Bay Lakers plan to acquire former Atlanta Hawks guard Kobe Bufkin, sources told ESPN," Dave McMenamin wrote on X. "Bufkin was the No. 15 pick in the 2023 draft out of the University of Michigan. Bufkin was traded from ATL to BKN and entered the G League pool after being waived last month."
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The 6-foot-4 Bufkin is a lefty from the University of Michigan.
Across 2023-24 and 2024-25, Bufkin appeared in 27 NBA games for the Hawks, averaging 11.9 minutes per contest. In that time, he scored 5.0 points per game with averages of 2.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
Bufkin shot just 22% in his NBA small-sample size, which is part of the reason he hasn't been able to stick around.
G League rights don't directly equate to NBA rights. Just because Bufkin joins South Bay doesn't mean he automatically can be called up to the L.A. Lakers. But he'll be right in front of Lakers people pretty much all day, every day.
If Bufkin shows enough signs of that former first-round talent, the big league Lakers could find a way to add him before no one else is the wiser.
It's certainly a meaningful chance worth taking for a minimal cost that could help the Lakers in the long run.
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