As long as the Los Angeles Lakers continue to carry a roster that appears unfinished–with no real starter at the power forward spot and few legitimate options (sorry, Kevon Looney) behind center Walker Kessler–there will continue to be speculation among the fan base and around the league about what other moves the front office might conjure up. Jonathan Kuminga still remains a target. Swiping someone from the second-aproned Nuggets (Cam Johnson is a favorite) is a popular outcome. Making a play for PJ Washington from the Mavericks is on the speculation list, too.
But there is something important to remember about where the Lakers are and how they seethe roster moving forward from here: They’re prioritizing flexibility. The Lakers won’t be flush with cap space the way they were this summer, but they’re angling to maintain their ability to use the full mid-level exception next season and they don’t want to have that space chewed up by Washington or another player who won’t be a big difference-maker.
Austin Reaves Gave Lakers a Discount
Remember, the Lakers got their biggest offseason signing–star guard Austin Reaves–to agree to a lesser salary the 2027-28 season, taking a $1.5 million raise rather than the $3.4 million for which he was eligible. That was to keep open enough room to stay under the luxury tax and allow the team to use more $16 million of the full midlevel exception.
If the Lakers can find a taker for Jarred Vanderbilt’s contract between now and next summer (he has a $13.5 million player option), they will have a comfortable window in which to operate and still maintain room under the tax level. So, yes, fake trades for players like Washington are fun thought exercises, but that does not appear to be how the Lakers are thinking, and it would send a poor message to Reaves after he agreed to a lesser payout.
Flexibility the Priority
The Lakers are not pressuring this roster, as it stands, to get to the NBA Finals. The idea is to make this a multi-year project. That was the subject of much debate within the front office in recent months, whether the team should run back the roster it had last year, which played so well when healthy and included LeBron James, or whether there needed to be a clean break and a reset that might include taking a short-term step back in hopes of long-term success.
Choosing the long term will require some financial discipline to maintain flexibility next summer. The Lakers had a big stretch of cap space this summer, and used it as best as they could.
“There will be a better free agent class and there will be more opportunities to add next summer,” one NBA executive said. “Free agency is not really how you build teams anymore but if you have the flexibility, you can do things by trade, you can use your exceptions. And free agency is going to make a little bit of a comeback because there just isn’t the space under the (aprons) to keep extending everybody.
“I think the Lakers were maybe a year early on their free agency money. But if you talk to them, keeping that flexibility is a lot more of a priority than just adding a veteran piece now just to fill a hole.”
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