Think about the biggest moves in Los Angeles Lakers history. Trading for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Signing Shaquille O’Neal and drafting Kobe Bryant. Landing LeBron James and Anthony Davis back-to-back. What do those acquisitions have in common? They all happened over the summer. Sure, they got Pau Gasol midseason, but that trade was a no-brainer that came at basically no cost. The earth-shattering, era-defining moves, though, almost always happen in the offseason.
And, well, there’s a reason for that. It is significantly harder to make moves during the season. That applies to blockbusters, obviously, but it also applies to the smaller, incremental upgrades that ultimately decide whether or not those moves turn out to be successful. The Lakers, in the most shocking NBA trade ever, have Luka Doncic. Now they have to build a team around him. And they’re doing it on the fly, with less than a week before the deadline, and a number of competing priorities.
LeBron James is still here. He is also 40 years old. He would presumably like to compete for championships alongside Doncic, for however long he plans to keep playing. But that timeline is going to be relatively brief. The Lakers are hoping that they will have Doncic for the next decade or more. They have to balance what they need in this moment with what will give Doncic the best chance to win titles in Los Angeles down the line. Some of those needs overlap. Others do not.
So let’s go through what the Lakers still need, where they can look for it, how much it could cost, and how they should approach the next several transaction cycles as a whole.
What do the Lakers currently need?
I’d like to start by offering my sincere congratulations to LeBron James for finally, after 21 seasons in the NBA and roughly half a decade’s worth of lobbying to the Lakers front office, escaping primary ball-handler duties. This is, in a way, the logical conclusion to the thought process that led to Russell Westbrook. James lived through the second Reagan administration. He’s too old to carry the burden he’s used to having on offense anymore. Now, for the first time in his Lakers career, he is playing on a Laker team whose single biggest strength is shot-creation. The Lakers will be able to generate points. Doncic, James and Austin Reaves is now arguably the best offensive trio in basketball.
The immediate issue, though, is that the Lakers have very little else. Who’s going to play center for them? Maxi Kleber and Jaxson Hayes do not comprise a legitimate, NBA center rotation. Kleber’s health is always a question mark. Christian Wood may return this season. If his pairing with Doncic was going to be viable long-term, the Mavericks would have kept them together. Doncic plays his best basketball next to centers that can protect the rim and finish lobs. Hayes fits the vague outline of that archetype, but overall, the Lakers lack a single, proven commodity at center.
What about the wings? Doncic will surely be delighted to reunite with Dorian Finney-Smith, his friend from their time together in Dallas who fit about as cleanly next to him as any player could. After that, the Lakers have a lot of one-dimensional players. Jarred Vanderbilt is an awesome defender who can’t shoot. Dalton Knecht hopefully develops into an awesome shooter, but he can’t defend. Losing Max Christie was a real blow here. The Lakers went 17-8 with him as a starter this season.
At a bare minimum, the Lakers need at least one center and at least one 3-and-D wing. These are things they need to acquire before Thursday’s trade deadline if they hope to make any sort of noise in the 2025 postseason.
But then, there’s the bigger picture here. Doncic needs a co-star. That can be James for now, while Doncic gets acclimated, but someone has to carry that torch after LeBron is gone. The Lakers might think that player is Reaves. He’ll have a window to try to prove it. But what matters, ultimately, is what Doncic thinks. Remember, he is still slated for 2026 free agency. He could extend. The Lakers are betting he’ll extend. But they don’t have the supermax chip to offer him as Dallas did. That’s a double-edged sword. They’re getting him at a discount if he does stay, but it means he has less incentive to do so. The Lakers have to prove that he can win there long-term. You don’t do that with role players. You do it with stars.
What do they have to offer? Who still fits and who doesn’t?
The biggest question here: Is Doncic and Reaves a viable back-court pairing? Reaves has thrived as a point guard this season. He isn’t a point guard any longer. He’s a high-volume 37% 3-point shooter, good but not great. What’s really distressing about this possible pairing is its defense. Doncic’s foibles on that end of the court are well-known. Reaves was quite good as a rookie. He’s gone downhill as his offensive role has increased and has been downright bad this season.
Maybe having Doncic in place makes his life easier. He’s a good chase defender, but gets attacked mercilessly on the ball. The Lakers no longer have an elite center to protect him. If he doesn’t start defending quickly, he is going to get exposed. From that perspective, you could argue that it makes sense to trade him now, before the spotlight on him gets too bright. If he gets hunted in the playoffs, that’s going to hurt his trade value, especially if his numbers on offense dip as a third perimeter fiddle.
Two players who are almost certainly on the block? Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent. Together, they make $28 million this season. Both are owed money next year as well, but don’t extend into the critical summer of 2026. Hachimura now has a nearly two-year sample as a 42% 3-point shooter, albeit on relatively low volume, and his ability to create his own shot makes him an interesting bet for someone else. His defense without Davis is going to get exposed. He doesn’t rebound nearly well enough for his position. He is someone the Lakers should be trying to cash out now.
Moving Vincent isn’t quite as necessary. He’s shooting nearly 39% from 3 since the beginning of December, and he defends as well as you could reasonably hope for out of someone his size. He’s just the least-objectionable matching salary the Lakers have left outside Kleber, who cannot be aggregated. Vanderbilt’s injury history and the three years remaining on his deal mean that he almost certainly can’t fetch value. That likely suits the Lakers just fine. They need his defense for now, and if Doncic could turn Derrick Jones Jr. into a useful offensive player, he might be able to do it for Vanderbilt as well.
The Lakers had two worthwhile young players to dangle: Christie and Knecht. Christie is gone. Knecht makes less than $4 million. He’d have to be packaged with someone more expensive, like Hachimura or Vincent, to bring back a real player. That’s a plausible scenario right now. With the 2029 pick gone, the Lakers are down to a precious few valuable trade assets. Here’s what they still have to trade from a draft perspective:
- Their unprotected 2031 first-round pick. To maximize the pick’s value, it has to be unprotected, as this pick is as far into the future as the teams are allowed to trade right now. That means it can’t roll over into a future year if traded before the 2025 deadline, so no team is going to risk taking a protected pick that never actually conveys.
- The protected portion of their 2027 first-round pick. At present, the Jazz control the Lakers’ 2027 first-rounder if it lands between No. 5 and No. 30. If it lands between No. 1 and No. 4, though, it stays with the Lakers. The Lakers can trade that conditional pick now. One could argue that it has less value today than it did a few days ago because of Doncic’s presence. One could also argue that, with Doncic not under contract beyond 2026, that pick has more value today than it previously did. The Lakers should try to take advantage of that uncertainty and trade their picks before Doncic re-signs to get the best possible return for them.
- Swap rights on their first-round picks in 2026, 2028 and 2030.
- Two second-round picks in 2025: their own and the Clippers’.
Those draft assets, along with Knecht, are likely their tools to landing meaningful role players in the near future. Reaves is only available for a star, but if they do something right now, those are likely the pieces they are working with.
So, what role players make sense?
First order of business? Get a rim-running, defensive-minded center. Let’s say, for now, the Lakers want to hold onto their first-round draft assets and Reaves in case of a future move. They’re essentially dangling some combination of Hachimura, Vincent, Knecht and those two remaining second-round picks. Here are the immediate candidates to replace Davis as the starting center for the Lakers:
- Nic Claxton: He’s a dream candidate, a high-end defensive center who is only 25 and has a four-year contract that descends in value each year. It’s not clear that he is available, and the Lakers might need to dip into the draft pool to snag him, but he is exactly the sort of big man Doncic can enhance. Health has been a concern in the past, but he’s now had three relatively healthy seasons in a row. The real question here is how much the Nets value Knecht, because any trade here would involve him as a centerpiece.
- Myles Turner: Doncic has played with great rim-running big men, but never an elite 3-and-D center. Turner could be that player for him if Indiana is still reluctant to pay him. The catch, though, is that the Lakers would have to pay him. That’s a scary proposition if they have any designs on cap space in 2025 or 2026 to give Doncic a younger co-star. The Lakers have been interested in Turner for some time, but the price will have to be right to grab him now.
- Deandre Ayton: This is a stealthy option. He’s been, frankly, a disaster in Portland. The end of his Suns tenure went badly as well, and a quote he gave Mark Medina last year is a pretty damning indictment of his attitude. “I got nothing to prove in this league,” he said. “I’m a max player, and I’ll continue to be a max player.” But in 2021, we saw Ayton become exactly the sort of player Doncic needs at center, an elite defender and rebounder that can score easy points created by high-IQ teammates. Maybe Doncic and James could pull that version of him out of whatever’s been happening in Portland. Worst-case scenario, he could likely be had for a song right now and his contract expires before the all-important summer of 2026 (we’ll get to that).
- Clint Capela: He’s been available for years. His contract is reasonable. Dallas once pursued him to partner with Doncic. The skill fit is obvious. He dunks and he blocks shots. The question here is age. Do the Lakers want to add a 30-year-old?
- Mitchell Robinson: This is a high-risk, high-reward swing. His salary is low and his skill set is perfect next to Doncic, but health has been such a concern for him. Do the Lakers have anything the Knicks, an all-in win-now team, would want? This would probably have to be a three-team trade, where Knecht and Vincent go somewhere else, a win-now wing goes to the Knicks, and Robinson lands in Los Angeles.
- Robert Williams III: The cheaper Portland center, and the easier fit with Doncic. At his best Williams was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate. His health is even riskier than Robinson’s, though, and given his size, he’s likely better-suited playing next to another big man.
- Walker Kessler: Danny Ainge wants a king’s ransom for him. Now might be the time for the Lakers to pay it. The real advantage of landing Kessler, aside from his elite rim-protection, is that he’s earning peanuts. He is making less than $3 million this season, less than $5 million next season, and his cap hold as a restricted free agent in 2026 would be roughly $14.6 million. Landing him as the center of the future would put the Lakers in a great position to add salary around him. He would almost certainly cost, at a bare minimum, Knecht, the 2031 pick and the removal of existing protections on that 2027 pick. He might even cost more.
Those are the obvious names. More will pop up depending on how much the Lakers are willing to give up. What we can likely say for now is that center is the first priority. The Lakers will likely keep an ear to ground on wings as well, albeit at lower price points. Here are a few possible options:
- Kyle Kuzma: The Lakers know him well, and he’s having a miserable year in Washington. His contract descends, which is a nice bonus, but he has not shot above-average from 3-point range once since leaving the Lakers. There’s no way the Lakers would give up real value for him, but he’d be worth a swing for the same reasons P.J. Washington was for Dallas a year ago: Doncic makes life easier for exactly this sort of player.
- Cam Johnson: The best wing on the market, but much more of an offensive player than they’d likely prefer. He almost certainly costs the 2031 first-rounder and Knecht. Are the Lakers willing to give up their two most tradable non-Reaves assets without solving center or their defense? Probably not, but it’s a conversation that is likely being had internally.
- Herb Jones: He shouldn’t be available, yet he continues to pop up in rumors. Anything short of Reaves would be on the table for him if the Pelicans are at all interested in a move. He’s an All-Defense-caliber wing that has grown into a decent enough shooter to survive offensively, and he has two below-market years left on his contract after this one.
- Caleb Martin: Now we’re onto the cheaper options. Martin is a rank-and-file 3-and-D wing, but he comes with playoff experience and a four-year, cost-controlled contract. If Philadelphia wants to take a small step back, some sort of Knecht-for-Martin deal makes some sense.
- Jerami Grant: The Lakers have been interested for years. His contract is a ticking time bomb. He’s consistently chosen to play for bad teams and emphasize his own offense rather than doing the dirty work for contenders. If that’s still his attitude, he isn’t a fit. If the Lakers can get him for a reasonable price and he’s open to playing some defense, he’s an interesting win-now addition.
Expect the Lakers to try to make at least one more trade this season. They basically have to get a center somehow. The real question, though, is where they’re getting Doncic’s co-star.
How do they get the next star?
In a perfect world, Reaves develops into an All-Star and the sidekick question gets answered organically. We can be honest with ourselves and say that isn’t likely. At some point in the very near future, the Lakers probably have to add a sidekick that Doncic finds acceptable if they are going to keep him for the rest of his career. There are two plausible ways they could do that: through a trade or free agency.
Right now, there are a handful of reasonably gettable All-Stars available on the market. Jimmy Butler is probably too old to justify trading for at this juncture. Maybe if the Lakers had a center in place they could do it on the basis of trying to win the 2025 championship, but without one, that’s just a bridge too far.
De’Aaron Fox? He’s a bit more interesting. The Lakers, by all accounts, were out of the Fox running early in part because of their reluctance to trade Reaves. Would that change in light of this deal? They think Reaves might be a star. Fox already is one. He’s reasonably young at 27, and thus far, at least, it doesn’t seem like anyone has blown Sacramento away for his services yet. If the price is Reaves, matching salary and that 2031 first-round pick, that might be worth exploring for the Lakers.
The danger, though, is that it would leave them with two stars that have overlapping skill sets and limited maneuverability to improve around them. Neither Fox nor Doncic are strong defenders. Fox is a below-average 3-point shooter. The Mavericks needed to strike oil on Dereck Lively and a handful of other moves to put a Finals team around Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Fox is worse than Irving, and there’s no guarantee the Lakers could find their Lively, or Daniel Gafford, or P.J. Washington. For that reason, Fox is probably a “no.”
Depending on their risk-tolerance, Zach LaVine probably makes more sense for the Lakers. They could get him without including Reaves. He’s a better shooter than Fox and more comfortable operating off of the ball. It doesn’t hurt that he has Los Angeles ties from his UCLA days. His health is the major question mark here. Don’t rule him out, but the Lakers probably don’t want to bet the Doncic era on someone that comes with such enormous injury risks.
Here’s a stealth candidate: Brandon Ingram. The Pelicans have been trying to trade him for eight months. He’s probably available for a reasonable price. Say, for instance, you could turn Hachimura and Vincent into mostly expiring salary somewhere, and then send that expiring salary plus a first-round pick to New Orleans. Ingram hasn’t grown into the all-around star wing the Pelicans were hoping for, but he has the tools to defend at a higher level than he thus far has and he could, at the very least, be a solid secondary shot-maker next to Doncic. The Lakers do love their reunions, and this sort of trade would allow them to keep Reaves as either a No. 3 option or a trade chip to use on someone else.
Those are the stars that are available right now. Others will join them. There will be a contingent of Lakers fans monitoring the Giannis Antetokounmpo situation in Milwaukee very closely. In all likelihood, he is unrealistic. With two guaranteed years on his contract after this one, he doesn’t have the leverage to force a specific destination even if he wants to get to Los Angeles. A dozen teams would outbid the Lakers. The same is probably true of other popular trade candidates like Devin Booker. It’s hard to imagine the Lakers trading for another All-NBA player in or near the beginning of their prime.
If the Lakers are trading for a superstar talent outside of the players available at this deadline, it’s probably one with significant strings attached. The two names that are worth throwing out in this respect are Zion Williamson and Joel Embiid. We have no idea how willing either of their teams are to trade them. Williamson has missed roughly half of his games in the NBA. Embiid has four years of supermax money left on his contract. These are both terrifying acquisitions. They are also the sort of talents that usually swing championships. Don’t expect the Lakers to trade for one of them. Don’t expect either of their teams to trade them in the near term. But if the Lakers are going to get a co-star for Doncic rather than just a sidekick, it’s going to have to be someone like this, someone risky enough to be had for the meager assets the Lakers still have available to them.
But Doncic’s partner in Los Angeles, whomever it may be, doesn’t need to come through a trade. At present, the Lakers have guaranteed salary owed to just two players in the 2026 offseason: Vanderbilt and Shake Milton. Milton’s $3.3 million contract for that season is easily movable. Knecht has a $4.2 million team option the Lakers will almost certainly pick up. Bronny James also has a team option that is… let’s say “less certain.” But broadly, the books are clean for the Lakers in that pivotal summer of 2026. They can pursue a star that offseason.
And they can do so without losing Reaves if he hasn’t been traded by then. He will almost certainly opt out of the final year and $15 million of his existing contract, but that current deal is so cheap that his cap hold will be reasonable: just a 50% raise on his 2025-26 salary of $13.9 million. Basically, that means the Lakers could re-sign him at any price up to his max, but he would only cost them around $21 million in cap space until he actually puts pen to paper. This is the same basic tactic the 76ers just used to sign Paul George. They used Tyrese Maxey’s low cap hold to maximize their space, and then they maxed him out after George officially signed.
This means that the Lakers could plan to go into the summer of 2026 with Doncic and Reaves in place (assuming both want to say) and the room to go add a big name. Who will be available? A number of big names, but all come with question marks. Butler will be too old. Kevin Durant likely will be as well. We’ve covered the Fox fit, and even if the Lakers want him, they’d have to convince him to turn down Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. Trae Young absolutely doesn’t fit. Mikal Bridges and Jaren Jackson Jr. would be perfect fits. Both are probably staying with their existing teams.
Could the Lakers wait until 2027, when Antetokounmpo, Donovan Mitchell and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have the ability to reach unrestricted free agency? Don’t count on it. Aside from Reaves earning market rate at that point, Doncic probably doesn’t want to wait two full seasons to get his running mate. They have to actually re-sign Doncic in 2026, so time is of the essence here. In that respect, the Lakers might try to get their co-star through a trade and then use free agency to build the supporting cast.
There is time to figure all of this out, but not much of it. The trade to land Doncic was a masterstroke, but the Lakers can’t rest on their laurels here. They don’t have a championship-caliber roster around Doncic right now and they’re on the clock to build one. It won’t be easy, but the hardest part is done. The Lakers have the face of their next great team in place. Now they just have to build a body to support it.
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