The Los Angeles Lakers rebuilt the roster around Luka Doncic this summer, but if the team is to compete at the highest levels of the NBA next season, it will need some contributions from unexpected sources.
One such source could be Peter Suder, a 6-foot, 5-inch shooting guard out of Miami of Ohio who has turned a few heads already with his play this summer. L.A. did not use a draft pick on Suder, instead bringing him on as an undrafted rookie free agent.
Suder led the RedHawks to an undefeated regular season and won MAC Player of the Year honors on the strength of 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.0 assists across 31.1 minutes per night. He also shot 54.6 percent from the field and 42.1 percent from behind the 3-point line, the latter of which should translate well alongside on-ball creators in Doncic and Austin Reaves.
While Suder is not wowing with his statistical output during Summer League, averaging 5.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists on 30 percent shooting from deep in 15.3 minutes per outing, Khobi Price of the New York Post wrote that Suder, soon to be 23, is impressing in other ways.
Price mentioned Suder’s effort in the context of fighting for loose balls and his focus on improved defense that can help him carve out a niche in the league.
“The No. 1 thing is for me to be successful and get a really good role at the NBA level … got to be able to shoot the cover off the ball from 3. That’s got to become my bread and butter,” Suder told Price. “But the No. 1 thing that they loved about me was just competitiveness and toughness, just not backing down from anybody.”
Arthur Kaluma, Cameron Carr Leading Lakers in Scoring During NBA Summer League
GettyArthur Kaluma of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Suder isn’t the only Lakers’ prospect showing a few things at Summer League.
Arthur Kaluma, a 24-year-old forward who averaged 14.6 points and 5.0 rebounds across 35 games for the G League affiliate South Bay Lakers last season, is leading L.A. with a highly efficient 20.3 points per outing on an average of just nine shots attempted through four Summer League games (54.5 percent from deep).
Shooting guard Cameron Carr, the Lakers’ first-round pick out of Baylor in June (No. 24 overall), is putting up 18.3 points per contest, which is second on the team, though his shooting has been poor (22.2 percent from the 3-point line).
Lakers’ Fate Rests in Hands of Luka Doncic, Walker Kessler
GettyWalker Kessler of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The true test of how far the Lakers can go with their revamped roster in 2026-27 is going to come down to how healthy Doncic and Reaves can remain over the 82-game regular season, and presumably into the playoffs, as well as the development of center Walker Kessler as the rim-running, rim-protecting big man L.A. invested in to elevate Doncic’s game.
Doncic has historically been at his best with at least one such player on the court beside him, leading the Dallas Mavericks to two Western Conference Finals berths and one NBA Finals appearance across a three-year stretch between 2022-24.
Los Angeles began the process of constructing a roster at least somewhat in the image of those Mavericks teams by securing Reaves as the secondary playmaker, filling the role previously occupied by Jalen Brunson and Kyrie Irving in Dallas, and adding Kessler on a four-year deal worth nearly $130 million.
L.A. also traded two first-round picks and two first-round swaps to the Utah Jazz to secure the soon-to-be 25-year-old center, which will severely restrict the moves the team can make to improve the roster in the immediate.
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