The Los Angeles Lakers showed their hand all the way back on Feb. 8. That is when they elected not to complete their second major trade of deadline season, the Mark Williams acquisition, because of concerns raised during his physical. If their goal was strictly to compete for the 2025 NBA championship, they would have made the trade with Charlotte anyway. As flawed as Williams might be, not having him is probably the single biggest reason the Lakers just lost their first-round series to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Forget about how badly they needed a center, specifically. JJ Redick was so low on his bench that he became the first head coach in tracking era history to ever use the same five-man lineup across a full half of a playoff game in Game 4. He trusted five players so he used five players. He just needed one more good, usable player.
The Lakers knew how thin this roster was in February. That’s why they rushed to grab Williams in the first place. But his medical concerns forced them to make a choice. The deadline had passed. They had no other way of adding an impact player. They could take Williams, go for it now and worry about the future, or they could punt 2025, hold the assets and try again later. They had to choose their priority: present or future.
That choice was obscured by their early success with Luka Dončić. For a minute there, it really looked like the Lakers could have made a deep playoff run without sacrificing the chips they might need for the offseason. The Timberwolves reminded us why that was never really plausible. The regular season is about strength and the playoffs are about weaknesses. Remaking your entire roster on the fly in February makes it almost impossible to cover up those weaknesses by the time April and May roll around. Maybe the Lakers could have done it if they’d prioritized the present. But they didn’t. They expressly chose the future.
So now, that future is here. The Lakers are not going to win the 2025 championship, but they have the foundation of a team that might be able to do it in 2026. They have one of the best players in the NBA today in Dončić and they have one of the best players in NBA history in LeBron James. That’s the hard part right there. They have the stars. They might even have a third one in Austin Reaves. What they lack is the sort of versatility and depth that won Minnesota this series. That is what they’re going to spend the next few months trying to find. Here’s how they’re going to try to do it:
Right now, the Lakers owe a bit more than $121.2 million in guaranteed money to nine players for next season. Those players are Luka Dončić, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Maxi Kleber, Dalton Knecht, Shake Milton and Bronny James. A 10th player, Jordan Goodwin, has a non-guaranteed minimum salary for next season and is almost certain to be back at roughly $2.3 million. With no other contracts added, that leaves the Lakers roughly $30 million below the projected salary cap and $65 million below the luxury tax. More importantly, it would give them around $73 million in space below the projected $195.9 million first apron and then around $85 million below the projected $207.8 million second apron. Of course, we still have two very important players to cover.
The first was their first trade addition of the season, Dorian Finney-Smith. He has a $15.4 million player option. The Lakers would love him back at that number. He would presumably like to be back, but with a bit more long-term security. Depending on what the Lakers are trying to accomplish from a cap perspective, that means they could either given him an extension off of that $15.4 million number or, if they need a bit more wiggle room this season, potentially ask him to opt out and leave a bit on the table for this season for more money in future years. Either way, expect a long-term resolution to be reached.
The second is far more significant: LeBron James. Like Finney-Smith, James has a player option. His is more expensive at around $52.6 million. If he wants to opt in at that number, the Lakers wouldn’t object. If he wants to opt out and re-sign for his slightly higher max, again, the Lakers would be fine with it. But if they have their way, James would leave a bit of money on the table to facilitate roster improvements.
Remember, he was willing to do so last year. The exact amount was unknown, but the idea was to open enough room to either use the non-taxpayer mid-level exception or acquire someone through a sign-and-trade. That would have meant sacrificing between $15 million and $20 million. The Lakers used that flexibility to chase Klay Thompson, didn’t get him, so James signed for nearly the max. Now, let’s say he’s willing to do so again. What kind of contract would he be signing?
Well, we can’t say for certain yet because we don’t know what the Lakers will do on the trade market, but here’s a rough estimate based on the Lakers neither adding nor subtracting major money through trades. Imagine Finney-Smith opts in. That would take them to around $138.9 million. Next, we’ll bake in $14.1 million, the projected non-taxpayer mid-level exception, for a significant free-agent signing, and another $10 million to both fill out the roster in July and have a bit of wiggle room in-season for 10-day contracts or trades. All of that would take the Lakers to around $158.9 million in salaries, leaving James roughly $37 million in salary below the first apron. That’s a $15 million cut from his player option, well within our intended range.
If this is broadly acceptable to James, the Lakers will likely set up their offseason moves in a similar way to how the Philadelphia 76ers did in 2023. James Harden told the 76ers to make whatever moves they planned to make and then give him “whatever is left over.” This way, the Lakers wouldn’t be constrained as they navigated their offseason business. They could make whatever trades they want to make, sign their free agents, and then hand LeBron whatever money they have left beneath whichever apron they’re locked below. If they want a non-taxpayer mid-level free agent, it will be the first apron.
Barring a few unlikely scenarios we will address below, we can safely assume that Dončić, James and Reaves are untouchable. Finney-Smith has negotiating leverage through his option, so he would only get traded if he wanted to. Assume he’s staying. Hachimura would be the hardest remaining Laker to part with, but given his roughly $18 million salary, he could be used to match money in certain trades. More likely, the Lakers would try to use the expiring contracts of Kleber ($11 million) and Vincent ($11.5 million) as salary filler in whatever trades they make. If they can find someone to take Vanderbilt ($11.6 million) instead of Vincent, they’d prefer to, but Vanderbilt has three years left on his contract, so he’ll be harder to move. Knecht ($4 million) is another possible trade piece as well.
As far as draft assets go, the Lakers can trade their unprotected 2031 first-round pick outright. They can also offer swap rights on their first-round picks in 2026, 2028, 2030 and 2032. Lastly, the 2027 first-round pick they owe the Jazz is top-four protected and does not extend into future seasons. Therefore, they can offer their 2027 pick in trades with the provision that the acquiring team only gets it if it lands in the top four.
So we’ve covered what the Lakers have and how much money they owe. What are they actually trying to get? In immediate basketball terms, they have two major needs. The first is a center, any center. This should be a good offseason to look for a center on the trade market, which works out nicely, because it’s a pretty limited market in free agency with one exception. The second need is a defensive-minded guard. Finney-Smith can defend big forwards, but as the Lakers learned with Anthony Edwards, they are not equipped to contain explosive guards. In another stroke of luck, this is a good free-agent class for such defenders. As they’ve learned with Vanderbilt, this defender needs to be good enough on offense to stay on the floor in the playoffs.
Lastly, we need to acknowledge the obvious: these are the Lakers. They’re going to sniff around any available stars. James is here for now, and Reaves has a chance to be an All-Star, but they don’t have an obvious long-term sidekick for Dončić yet. Getting one, either now or later, will be in the back of their mind.
So, with all of that in mind, let’s talk targets.
The first call the Lakers make should go to the Milwaukee Bucks for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Offer everything but Dončić and James. Reaves, picks, other players, whatever. They’ll say no, but hey, you have to make the call. These are the Lakers, after all, and as they learned with Dončić, they tend to be pretty lucky in these endeavors.
The next call is probably a no as well, but it’s slightly more serious: Jaren Jackson Jr. His situation is somewhat unique. If he makes All-NBA, he likely re-signs in Memphis for the super max. If he doesn’t make All-NBA, the Grizzlies need cap space to renegotiate and extend him. They’ve cleared some, but we don’t yet know if it will be enough. The Jackson situation is fluid. If he doesn’t extend, it might mean he’s just waiting until next summer, when he can just do so with full Bird Rights. It might also mean he’s angling to leave.
This is where tampering definitely absolutely certainly does not happen (but really kind of does). If Jackson wants to be a Laker, they’ll know. As the Lakers have the capacity to create max cap space in 2026, they can threaten to sign him outright if he wants to come. This was part of how the Lakers got Anthony Davis in 2019. Again, don’t count out on it, but these are scenarios the team will game out. If they think they can pressure the Grizzlies into making a bad Jackson trade, they’ll try to do it.
Ok, now that we’ve gotten the stars out of the way, let’s talk about the more practical targets. The priorities here are rim-protection and lob-finishing. The ideal Laker center does both. Price matters on a few levels. We covered the aprons above, but we should also note that part of the appeal Williams had was that he was on a rookie contract. That not only mean a low salary for now, but it also meant a low cap hold as a 2026 free agent. In a perfect world, the Lakers would probably prefer to keep their cap clean for 2026 free agency and beyond. We’ll note that where applicable, but for now focus primarily on basketball fit. There are eight teams that make some measure of sense as Laker trade partners for a big man. Here they are in no particular order:
