Dave McMenamin
AFTER A TRANSFORMATIVE and tumultuous season for the Los Angeles Lakers, one that landed the franchise superstar Luka Doncic but ended with a disappointing first-round playoff flameout, there were serious questions about how the team could rebound.
Could the Lakers find a starting center to play with Doncic, after they’d reneged on a trade-deadline deal to land Charlotte’s Mark Williams and benched Jaxson Hayes in the playoffs? Would this be LeBron James‘ final summer? Could they find more two-way talent to keep pace with teams like this year’s champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder? What would Year 2 of the JJ Redick era look like?
What no one foresaw — or knew to ask — was the biggest piece of Lakers news in decades: that the Buss family, which has owned the Lakers since 1979, agreed to sell a majority ownership stake to businessman Mark Walter at a valuation of $10 billion.
Though Walter announced in a statement Wednesday that Jeanie Buss would remain governor of the team and “continue to oversee all team operations on a day-to-day basis for the foreseeable future,” changes to the Lakers’ flawed roster will be necessary for next season’s team to be a true contender.
Just how far away the Lakers are depends on how you view their starting point as free agency is set to begin.
On one hand, L.A. won 50 games in Redick’s first season on the job and secured the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers struck a deal to acquire Doncic at midseason, and he meshed well with the team’s existing stars in James and Austin Reaves. All of this despite Doncic having precious little practice time to work with his new team after arriving with a left calf strain.
On the other hand, L.A. lost to the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. By the end of the series, Redick had lost faith in his starting center, benching Hayes for the last game and a half. And the fit of the Lakers’ principal pieces is imperfect.
Doncic and Reaves are defensive liabilities and often overlap offensively, while James, entering his 23rd season, is bound to have some degree of slippage, even if it only manifests itself in his availability.
In his exit interview with reporters after the loss to the Wolves, Rob Pelinka, Lakers president of basketball operations and general manager, predicted an active summer.
“There is going to be a lot of movement around the NBA. It just feels that way,” Pelinka said on May 1. “There’s just so many aggressive leaders and organizations that are expecting now success. So, I think there will be a lot of opportunities for us to look at. I really do. I’m excited about the offseason, and what will come our way.”
BASED ON THE activity that has already occurred, during the NBA Finals when normally teams pause major business to keep the focus on the games — Memphis trading Desmond Bane to Orlando and Phoenix trading Kevin Durant to Houston — Pelinka was right.
In the days that followed the Thunder’s championship win, Boston traded Jrue Holiday to Portland and Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta, and New Orleans sent CJ McCollum to Washington in a deal centered on Jordan Poole. So far, the Lakers have remained on the sidelines.
But they were connected to one deal. Williams was traded to Phoenix for the No. 29 pick in the draft and a 2029 protected first-round pick — a package similar to the one the Lakers had offered to the Hornets in exchange for Williams in February.
On the first night of the NBA draft on Wednesday, there were plenty of picks moved, but the Lakers — without a first-round selection (traded to New Orleans as a final piece of the Anthony Davis deal in 2019) — were locked out of the action.
And their assets to get in on it to improve the team this summer are limited.
The only mechanism the Lakers are projected to have in free agency is the taxpayer midlevel exception, worth $5.7 million, because James is expected to pick up the final year of his contract for $52.6 million, sources told ESPN.
On the trade market, Dalton Knecht and the Lakers’ 2031 first-rounder will continue to be positive assets the Lakers can include in offers, as well as the expiring contracts of Rui Hachimura ($18.3 million), Gabe Vincent ($11.5 million) and Maxi Kleber ($11 million) as Pelinka searches for a center.
Pelinka indicated that Reaves would not be traded when asked about the team’s core after the season.
“The level of confidence in Austin Reaves, LeBron James and Luca Doncic is at an all-time high still,” Pelinka said. “I think those three guys have incredible promise playing together. And we will collectively do a better job to make sure they’re surrounded with the right pieces to have ultimate success.”
But rumors swirled this week, linking L.A. to trade talks with the Utah Jazz for center Walker Kessler and the Miami Heat for wing Andrew Wiggins, and representatives for both Reaves and Vincent were not contacted about any of the teams involved, sources told ESPN, which is customary when a trade nears the finish line.
Kessler was one of the centers L.A. inquired about last season before the Williams trade, sources told ESPN, but Utah’s asking price — multiple first-round picks — was too steep. The 23-year-old 7-footer averaged 11.1 points, 12.2 rebounds (including a league-leading 4.6 offensive rebounds) and 2.4 blocks in his third season with the Jazz.
Beyond his age fitting with Doncic’s timeline, Kessler is owed only $4.9 million next season and would have a relatively small cap hold in the summer of 2026, allowing L.A. to pursue other free agents along with holding his Bird rights to be able to extend him.
The Lakers called the Atlanta Hawks about their 6-10, athletic big man Onyeka Okongwu last season, sources told ESPN. Other centers under contract that the Lakers have mulled internally since last season include Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton and Portland’s Robert Williams III, sources told ESPN. Among the other free agent big men L.A. could target are veterans Clint Capela, Al Horford and Brook Lopez.
The rest of the roster will be filled with veteran minimum contracts and in the second round of the draft. On Thursday, L.A. moved up 10 spots to No. 45 by trading the No. 55 pick and cash considerations to the Chicago Bulls for their pick and then traded the No. 45 pick and more cash to Minnesota to draft Arkansas forward Adou Thiero at No. 36.
Pelinka told Spectrum Sportsnet after the draft that Thiero, an athletic 6-8, 220 pound forward, could fit the “archetype” of what OG Anunoby provides for the New York Knicks.
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What Adou Thiero brings to the Lakers
Check out Adou Thiero’s top highlights as the Lakers select him with the 36th pick in the NBA draft.
MEANWHILE, THERE’S JAMES, who sources believe will opt in to his $52.6 million player option, and the rest of the roster.
James, who turns 41 in December, returned to on-court basketball activities this week after sustaining a Grade 2 MCL sprain in his left knee in Game 5 against Minnesota.
But before his return to the court, he had been training in the weight room with his son, Lakers guard Bronny James, sources told ESPN, their first extended offseason together after last summer’s Paris Olympics. And while James has considered retirement every offseason since 2023, a source familiar with James’ thinking told ESPN that at this point, James is not entering next season with any certainty that it will be his last.
Reaves, for his part, declined the Lakers’ four-year, $89.2 million offer this week, which sources said came as no surprise.
In the summer of 2026, he’s eligible to sign a four-year, $98 million extension, or he can opt out of the final year of his contract, become an unrestricted free agent and be eligible for 25% of whatever the salary cap is for 2026-27.
The Lakers made the offer, sources said, understanding that Reaves would turn it down, but the franchise wanted to show its interest in him nonetheless and did not want to send the wrong signal by not offering it. Both sides, sources told ESPN, are motivated to find a deal next summer.
Forward Dorian Finney-Smith, who underwent surgery on his left ankle after the season, has until Sunday to opt out of the final year of his contract, worth $15.4 million for next season. He is extension-eligible before free agency begins Monday.
Up until Saturday, the Lakers can offer Finney-Smith a three-year extension worth $54 million, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks. From Between Sunday and Monday, L.A. can offer him a four-year extension worth $90.2 million — with his player option being replaced with a new salary.
If Finney-Smith opted in for $15.4 million for next season, he’d be eligible to sign a four-year deal worth $96.5 million, assuming he signs after July 6 when the free agent moratorium is lifted. A source familiar with the talks told ESPN that while Finney-Smith has interest in returning to L.A., he could look elsewhere for a multiyear deal if the only way to stay with the Lakers is to opt into his deal.
The Finney-Smith resolution could have significant effects in determining the options available to L.A. If he were to leave, the Lakers would have parted with three second-round picks for a half-season rental after trading for Finney-Smith from the Brooklyn Nets. And they would be parting with a popular locker room figure and a player Redick trusts implicitly.
But his departure would allow L.A. to open up the full midlevel exception of $14.1 million, which could be split up to pursue multiple free agents seeking a premium contract above the veteran minimum. And if the Lakers didn’t use all of the midlevel exception, they could take on more salary in a trade and absorb the extra money into whatever they have left of the MLE.
And then, of course, there’s Doncic, L.A.’s 26-year-old superstar and the future face of the franchise.
On Aug. 2, the Lakers can offer Doncic a four-year, $229 million extension. Doncic could also opt to sign a three-year, $165 million extension with a player option in 2028, per Marks, which would then allow him to sign a max deal in 2028 that would give him 35% of the salary cap for five seasons.
While the exact salary scenario Doncic and the Lakers land on remains to be seen, there’s no signs of a split anytime soon. A source close to Doncic told ESPN that Walter’s purchase was a positive development.
“You always want the wealthiest owners, so that speaks for itself,” the source said. “And his track record speaks for itself. … [Doncic] wants to win. This owner’s proven that he wants to win. So this is a plus-plus.”
Additionally, Doncic remains motivated by how the Dallas Mavericks treated him in the aftermath of the trade and how the Lakers’ season ended, and has committed to an offseason training and nutrition program, sources told ESPN.
Doncic will also have a direct conduit to the Lakers’ coaching staff with him this summer. Lakers assistant coach Greg St. Jean will serve as an assistant coach with the Slovenian national team, sources told ESPN, as Doncic competes for his home country in the FIBA EuroBasket tournament.
The Lakers might have their ascending star in Doncic, a bright young coach in Redick and deep-pocketed owner in Walter to set up their future, but there is plenty of work to be done to maximize the current opportunity with this team. Especially knowing that James is so close to the end.
“We’re going to turn over every stone and whatever resources the collective bargaining agreement gives us, we’re going to use to the utmost,” Pelinka told Spectrum SportsNet on Thursday. “We won’t rest until we get it right.”
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