Lakers give draft secondary status

The NBA draft takes place tonight, but the Lakers won’t be picking until long after the lottery selections have left the green room and thrown on the caps of their new teams.

The Lakers sent their first-round pick to Memphis as part of the Pau Gasol trade in February and have only their second-round pick, No. 58 overall. It is the third-to-last selection in the draft, leaving the Lakers in downshift mode compared to past seasons.

“We’re trying to move up to 57 or 56,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said wryly last week.

The Lakers haven’t been without a first-round selection since 2001, but it is expected to be a trend in coming years. The Lakers also sent their 2010 first-round pick to Memphis in the Gasol trade.

Players drafted in the second round are not given guaranteed contracts, and it is extremely rare for late picks in the round to even make an impact in the NBA, though there are some exceptions.

San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili was taken with the 57th pick in the 1999 draft. Rapidly improving Houston forward Luis Scola was also a late second-round pick, selected 56th by San Antonio in 2002.

A more important event for the Lakers takes place Monday night, the beginning of the free-agency period. The Lakers hope to re-sign restricted free agents Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf, but there aren’t any major moves in the works for a team that was two victories away from winning the NBA championship.

“I don’t think there’s any rush for us to do anything right now,” Kupchak said recently.

One player the Lakers probably won’t be acquiring is Sacramento forward Ron Artest, who holds a one-year player option for $7.4 million, but Artest has said he would opt out only if he could make more money as a free agent. The most the Lakers could offer would be the mid-level exception of about $6 million a year for up to five years.

Artest, 28, visited the Lakers’ locker room during the NBA Finals and has spoken glowingly of Kobe Bryant in the past, but he told the Mason and Ireland Show on KSPN-AM (710) that it “looks like I’m going to be a King next year” before saying he would “never” take less money to play for a championship contender.

“Not in a million years,” he said. “Actually, not in 10 million years.”

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Second round

Teams that finished the regular season with identical records will select in the reverse order of the first round.

31. Minnesota-a

32. Seattle

33. Portland-b

34. Minnesota-c

35. CLIPPERS

36. Portland-d

37. Milwaukee

38. Charlotte

39. Chicago

40. New Jersey

41. Indiana

42. Sacramento-e

43. Sacramento

44. Utah-f

45. San Antonio-g

46. Seattle-h

47. Washington

48. Phoenix-i

49. Golden State

50. Seattle-j

51. Dallas

52. Miami-k

53. Utah

54. Houston

55. Portland-l

56. Seattle-m

57. San Antonio

58. LAKERS

59. Detroit

60. Boston

a-from Miami through Boston; b-from Memphis; c-may be conveyed to Detroit; d-from New York; e-from Atlanta; f-from Philadelphia; g-from Toronto; h-from Portland through Boston; i-from Cleveland; j-from Denver; k-from Orlando; l-from Phoenix through Indiana; m-from New Orleans through Houston.