The Los Angeles Lakers had to create space in order to sign Marcus Smart and Shake Milton ended up drawing the shortest straw. Los Angeles waived Milton right before his $3 million salary for the 2025-26 season was set to become guaranteed, completely taking him off the books in the process.
Milton's tenure with the Lakers was a short one. He was thrown into a trade that was headlined by D'Angelo Russell and Dorian Finney-Smith and wound up playing 30 games for the Lake Show. In those 30 games, he averaged 3.9 points in 11.