The Los Angeles Lakers had plenty of incentive to surround Luka Doncic with talent this offseason already, but the leap of San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama this postseason may, and should, redirect the Lakers’ efforts to one specific player.
Wembanyama watched Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander accept the MVP trophy ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals in Oklahoma City, then proceeded to steal the win from the defending champions on their home court on the strength of 41 points, 24 rebounds and three blocks.
Some of the discourse in the immediate aftermath of the double-overtime victory was that Wembenyama had successfully and resoundingly staked his claim as the best player in the world late in his third professional campaign.
With that in mind — and the Lakers’ necessity to overcome not just Wembanyama and the Spurs, but Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder as well, every year for perhaps the next decade simply to graduate out of the West and into the NBA Finals — the urgency in Los Angeles to procure a player who can stand toe-to-toe with Wembanyama is beyond palpable.
There are few such players currently existing in the world, though one of them is Giannis Antetokounmpo, whom the Milwaukee Bucks happen to be actively shopping this summer.
Giannis Antetokounmpo Among Few Possible Answers to Counter Victor Wembanyama in Coming Years
GettyGiannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Sam Amick of The Athletic wrote on Friday, May 22 that any Western Conference teams hoping to compete at the highest levels of the conference and the league for the foreseeable future must consider a solution for Wembanyama, or at least the closest thing to one that might exist.
“You see Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4, 22-year-old basketball alien who descended upon San Antonio just a few short years ago, dominating in the kind of way we’ve never seen against the historically great, reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder,” Amick wrote. “And you wonder, while scanning a roster that now seems so depressingly ill-equipped, how your team is supposed to deal with this terrifying talent for the next decade (plus) to come.”
Amick quoted an active GM in the West who compared Wembanyama to Superman, but noted that every player in history has had a weak spot.
“There’s kryptonite out there somewhere,” the GM told Amick.
Antetokounmpo is approximately seven-feet tall himself and has the build to potentially out-muscle Wembanyama for multiple years moving forward, even as the Spurs center continues to develop physically.
A two-time MVP and 10-time All-Star, Antetokounmpo has also been a Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time NBA All-Defense selection. He is entering his age-32 campaign next year and has battled injury issues in the playoffs in recent seasons. He also played just 36 games in 2025-26, though wanted to return to the lineup late in the campaign. However, the team did not allow it.
Lakers Must Include Austin Reaves in Any Trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo if They Also Want to Keep Luka Doncic
GettyLuka Doncic and Austin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Antetokounmpo’s game profiles as one that could at least give Wembanyama problems on both ends of the court, matching him with similar height and more power while bringing career averages of 24.1 points, 9.9 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game to the table.
Pairing him with Doncic would also create a superstar core of two of the best five or six players in the league, which the Spurs won’t boast for several years until rookie Dylan Harper potentially enters that conversation, assuming he maxes out his apparent career trajectory.
The Lakers can trade first-round picks in 2026, 2031 and 2033, while they can also deal first-round swaps in 2028, 2030 and 2032. Los Angeles can theoretically get a deal done by sending most, or all, of that draft capital to the Bucks, along with Austin Reaves in a sign-and-trade structure.
L.A. needs to ink Reaves to an extension this summer to either keep or trade him, and he can command up to a five-year deal worth approximately $241 million. Antetokounmpo is on a $175 million contract that pays him nearly $58.5 million next season.
The Lakers will have to get close to that amount in player salary in any deal they might make, which means adding at least one more player to the agreement. Who that player would be would depend on who the Bucks have interest in and how much salary the Lakers would need to package to make the money work.
Doncic has said he doesn’t want the Lakers to include Reaves in any trades this summer, even for Antetokounmpo, which could prove one of several potential hitches in any scenario ending with the two-time MVP playing in Los Angeles next season.
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Lakers Incentivized to Trade for $175 Million Victor Wembanyama ‘Kryptonite’ appeared first on HEAVY.