Ditching aging, injury-prone 10-time All-Star center Anthony Davis to trade for 26-year-old superstar guard Luka Doncic, already a five-time All-NBA First Teamer, from the Dallas Mavericks this season was absolutely a no-brainer for Los Angeles general manager Rob Pelinka.
Pelinka did bring back a rotation-caliber center, Maxi Kleber, in the offing — but Kleber was recuperating from a January foot sprain, and although he made a cameo in L.A.’s season-ending Game 5 defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first round of the playoffs, he essentially redshirted his first Lakers season.
Jaxson Hayes, the de facto starting center when the Lakers rescinded their trade for rim-rolling Charlotte Hornets five Mark Williams, proved to be unplayable for head coach JJ Redick by the end of the Lakers’ first round playoff series. Hayes will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and with his rotation role now in question, it feels unlikely he’ll return.
One free agent center who could prove relatively affordable for the Lakers, however, is another program alum: Milwaukee Bucks 3-and-D vet Brook Lopez.
After a respectable regular season run, the 37-year-old regressed mightily this postseason. By the end of the Bucks’ own five-game first round playoff series loss to the Indiana Pacers, head coach Doc Rivers had shifted Lopez to a bench role in favor of the younger, quicker Bobby Portis — even though Portis couldn’t offer the same level of rim protection, at least he was mobile. The reconfigured Bucks starting lineup was able to at least push the Pacers to overtime, and almost to a Game 6, before a late collapse.
Keith Smith of Spotrac, for one, thinks Portis will opt to return to Milwaukee this summer.
