The Los Angeles Lakers have lost Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency, and it appears the franchise isn’t interested in going all-in. The Lakers reportedly want to preserve cap space for 2027, and Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor has ripped them for this approach when they have LeBron James and Luka Doncic on the roster.
“2027? You mean…two summers from now…for a player they may or may not be able to get? Is Rob Pelinka insane? You have Luka Doncic and LeBron James on your team today!”
O’Connor wouldn’t have been the only one to have had that kind of reaction. Very rarely do you see a team have two players as great as James and Doncic on their roster, and instead of maximizing the chances to win now, the Lakers are prioritizing the future. Here is what ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported about the situation.
“Though Finney-Smith was a popular locker room figure and helped the Lakers to a 14-6 record in the 20 games he started in the regular season, L.A. exercised discipline in its negotiations to preserve cap space for 2027, when the team expects to have space to sign a max-salary free agent.”
This is so incredibly bizarre. To go with O’Connor’s comments, the very best players in the NBA rarely hit free agency in this age of supermax contracts. When we do see a superstar change teams, it’s almost always via a trade.
So, why would the Lakers even want to create cap space for a max contract in 2027? There’s no guarantee whatsoever that a big name will be available then. Even if a star is entering the market, do we think they will be better than James, even at this stage of his career?
James averaged 24.4 points, 7.8 rebounds, 8.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game in 2024-25 to make the All-NBA Second Team. There is a very slim chance that Doncic will get to play alongside someone this good in the future, and so, the Lakers need to try to win now.
If the Lakers are so focused on the future that they don’t want to give Finney-Smith a deal comparable to what the Houston Rockets gave him (four years, $53 million), they can kiss their chances of winning a title with this James-Doncic duo goodbye. This was, by no means, a deal that could potentially doom them in a couple of years.
You usually can’t fault a team for keeping an eye on the future, but the Lakers are in a unique situation. They have two superstars who are playing at a high level, but one of them will be gone in a year or two.
This approach from the Lakers could be why there have been suggestions that James could leave. The 40-year-old picked up his $52.4 million player option for 2025-26, but all we’ve heard since then is that he could potentially ask out.
NBA insider Shams Charania reported that James could leave the Lakers if they can’t compete for a title. The 21-time All-Star understands that they are prioritizing the future in a lot of ways, but he wants to win another championship before he walks away from the game.
