The Lakers Will Never Be The Same...

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]What is next for the LA Lakers? Well, I can tell you one thing, a lot of uncertainty. There might not be a single other team in the entire league this year that has more question marks about what their team is going to look like to start next season than the LA Lakers.

[00:00:13]And in terms of their season as a whole, it was a pretty interesting one. They obviously had a lot of excitement around the team. It was their first full year with Luca. If you remember going back into the beginning of the season, there was all this hype around the fact that he got into great shape and he looked great. He had a really, really good season. He led the league in scoring.

[00:00:28]He's going to make first team allNNBA because he met the 65g game rule. But they also were still a little bit of a mercenary team, which we're going to talk about later in their contract section. A lot of guys under one-year deals, a lot of guys that might not be on the team in a couple of seasons, and they're just trying still to figure out how to build the best team around Luca that they can. And of course, the other piece of it that we were all talking about during the season is, is this LeBron's last year? Is this it? Is he going to either move on from LA, maybe go to a team like Cleveland, maybe join up with Steph Curry and Golden State, or is he just going to retire? is his career going to be 100% over. LeBron's going to move on. And at that point, the Lakers are looking around wondering what exactly to do here? Because by the end of the year, and certainly in the postseason, LeBron looked really, really good. And so there's there was this sentiment in the middle of the year that it seemed like the whole experience for LeBron in LA was just over. By the end of the season, he still looked incredible, especially given his age.

[00:01:18]And I think there'd be a lot of motivation for the Lakers to keep him if he chose to stay and if he chose to stay in the league in the first place. And that doesn't even begin to get to all of the uncertainty that they have around free agents going into next season, which we're going to talk about in an upcoming section. But I I think it's important to think about the end of the Lakers season as well in terms of what's next for them because they really started surging towards the end of the year. It's a little bit lost in the fact that Luca and Austin Reeves got hurt.

[00:01:43]But up until those guys got hurt, they changed some things around. They were aggressive defensively. They figured out a way to put together an above average defense. And Luca, Austin Reeves, LeBron, those guys were playing really well together. LeBron was a little bit more in like a a role player kind of role and their offense was cooking obviously with Luca and Austin Reeves.

[00:01:58]And I think there was something there.

[00:02:00]And I think we learned that there is a way for those three guys to play really well together, especially if you add a little bit of talent, a little bit more talent I should say, around them. And I think we also learned that JJ Reic is a really good coach. I think he coached really, really well in the postseason.

[00:02:12]The fact that they were able to beat that Rockets team in the first round, a Rackets team that had injuries of their own, but the Lakers without Luca and Austin Reeves should not have been able to win that series. And I think it's a testament to how good LeBron was and how good of a coach JJ Reic was this season.

[00:02:24]They really got a lot out of this team.

[00:02:26]And again, it's just hard to to figure out what to do with the team next when you have those injury issues at the end of the year. Luca doesn't even play in the postseason. Austin Reeves only plays a handful of games and ultimately they were made to look really bad by an Oklahoma City Thunder team that is just simply incredible. They didn't even have Jaylen Williams and it the series was just never close. The the Lakers just they didn't have options. It wasn't something where they went into the series with much of a chance in the first place. Uh if Luca had played, obviously they'd had a much better chance, but I'm not taking too much away from from how good the Thunder looked against the Lakers at the end of the postseason. So what's next then as we look at the off seasonason for the Lakers? Well, first and foremost, you got to talk about free agency. I mentioned the uncertainty with LeBron in terms of retirement. He's also a free agent. He also has the option to go into free agency. We talked about the Cleveland possibility. Um I think it's more likely now, certainly than it was a month or two ago, that LeBron does resign with the Lakers, but you got to figure out what the cost of that is going to be. We're at the point now with LeBron where it's hard to just be a no doubt about it, you know, max contract guy. We're going to pay you 55 $60 million a year. It's hard to do that with a 41 42 year old guy at this point in his career. Is he willing to take a little bit less to go back to LA? How much does being in LA really mean to him? Other guys as well that are upcoming free agents for the Lakers.

[00:03:34]Ruie, who I think was really, really good for them, especially in the postseason, is an underrated part of what makes this Lakers team tick. He gives them size, gives them rebound, he gives them defense, and can shoot the ball as well. is really really a good fit on this roster. Luke Canard, who had some good moments, is a free agent as well. Then you've got some player option guys. DeAndre Aton, who I'm pretty sure the Lakers are hoping he turns down that player option, he goes elsewhere. Marcus Smart, who was way more essential to the team and way better than I thought that he ever had any business being, especially in the games that that Luke and Austin Reeves missed in the playoffs. And then the big one is Austin Reeves. He's got like a $14 million player option. He's going to turn that one down and he is going to be one of the biggest free agents on the market.

[00:04:12]We're going to talk about him here in a second, but that is a huge, huge question mark for LA. And I don't think it's a guarantee at all that Austin Reeves begins the season with the Lakers next season given how he looks in the postseason. I don't want to step on that section too much. We're going to talk about it in a second. And so outside of that, when you look for HC, like the guys that they're bringing back is Luca and and a handful of role guys. Like their roster is going to look way way different unless they just resign all of these guys. Now, the nice thing for them is if they don't bring anybody back, like let's just say they find a trade for Austin Reeves or let him walk, they let LeBron walk. Right now, they're projected to have over $60 million in salary cap space, which is at least enough for one max contract slot. Now, again, you're losing Austin Reeves and LeBron in this scenario, but there's some relatively intriguing free agency options. Maybe James Harden hits the open market and you think he's a good fit. Him alongside Luca would be interesting to say the least, especially defensively. Chris Porzingis is out there and we know that the Lakers are going to be looking for a big to upgrade their front court. And skill setwise, he's really really interesting alongside Luca, but we did that already in Dallas and it didn't go particularly well. I'm speculating, but I don't think those guys are like best friends, Luca and Chris Porzingis. So, personalitywise, I don't think that's going to be a fit.

[00:05:18]And I'm not trying to tell you that Chris Porzingis would require $50 million. And really, there's not a lot of great options in free agency that would justify letting, you know, LeBron even walk, much less LeBron and Austin Reeves. like Draymond, maybe Isaiah Hardenstein is out there as well. He's a guy that a lot of people are pointing out could have his team option declined by the Thunder so that they could save some money. But there are some options if they want to go the more flexible route and really change their roster around. And obviously at this point, they need to find a way to bring these guys back and then find some upgrades.

[00:05:46]Like the ideal scenario, I think for the Lakers would be you bring back LeBron on a less than max deal, you bring back Reeves on a less than max deal, and then use that flexibility to try and add some upgrades on the rest of the roster. That also means, by the way, you'd have to figure out a way to maintain or to to bring back Ruie, I should say, which would be difficult. But the the big questions are LeBron and Austin Reeves.

[00:06:03]LeBron, is he going to go to Cleveland?

[00:06:05]Is he going to retire? His kid and his handpicked head coach are in LA. And I feel like that just gets under discussed every time someone talks about this, like, oh, he's going to go to Cleveland and be the savior there and go back and finish his career there. I get the sentiment, but one, he already did that once, won a title for him, and two, is like this seems kind of silly to talk about, but like what is is Bronnie just going to be on the Lakers bench? Like, is he he's played with him now, so he's cool just letting him be there? I'm not trying to tell you that's going to be the entirety of his decision-making process, but he's been in LA for a long time now. And I increasingly with how the season ended, I think the LeBron leaving LA stuff is a little bit overblown. And I think the most likely outcome likely outcome is he returns to LA on a less than max deal. Uh the second option would be that he just straight up retires and the third option would be that he goes in free agency because the biggest thing too with Cleveland, they're not going to have a lot of money to throw at him. Like he's gonna have to take a significant pay cut to go to either Cleveland or Golden State. And uh the the team that has the best opportunity to keep him in a place where he can win and a place that he likes and pay him a bunch of money is the Lakers. So unless the Lakers just say no thank you, which I would be surprised by, I think LeBron will end up coming back. Now, the Reeves thing, this is one of the biggest dilemmas in the entire NBA this offseason because Austin Reeves is very clearly good and in ways is a good fit alongside Luca and a guy you would want to pair with him in the Luca era. You want guys that fit his game. You want guys that fit his play style. And Austin Reeves, he's not Jaylen Brunson. He's not Kyrie Irving, but he is a little bit in that mold as an on and an offball guard. guy that can space, a guy that can be a primary creator when Luca goes to the bench or when he needs to take a rest while he's still on the floor. And again, just plays really well with him. He's not someone you're worried about in terms of offball spacing. And it just works really well offensively. The problem is or the two problems are one, defense, especially in the context of him playing alongside Luca and two, the playoffs.

[00:07:56]And if you're the Lakers and you have Luca, like everything for around that guy has to be built around those two things. It has to be built around creating a team that can guard because you know your offense is going to be good with Luca. It has to be built around a team that's going to play well in the postseason otherwise none of it matters. And you think about the team that Dallas built around him that ultimately made the NBA finals. It was a lot of shooting. It was a lot of defense. And yes, Kyrie was there, but they had so much size and defense elsewhere that those guys could coexist defensively. And side note, I continue to believe that when Kyrie Irving tries, he can actually be a pretty good defender. He's got great hands. He's quick. He's stronger than you think.

[00:08:29]Just doesn't always try because he has such a large offensive responsibility.

[00:08:31]But Austin Reeves can't do that. Like Austin Reeves, we are at the point now where like the the physical limitations for him defensively are clear, especially in the playoffs. And you just can't expect him to be anything remotely close to a plus on defense. And again, alongside Luca with this roster construction, it just doesn't work. Now, what I will say is I think it's pretty much impossible that the Lakers just let Austin Reeves walk in free agency unless he gets like a super duper max deal from like the Nets or something. like if someone offers him, you know, 50 million bucks a year or something and the Lakers are like, "Okay, no thank you." Like maybe he'll walk. But I think he wants to be in LA. I think he wants to play alongside Luca and ideally LeBron, there's plenty of opportunities to come with that. There's a lot of fame and notoriety that comes with the Lakers.

[00:09:14]It's a place that he's grown accustomed to. It's a place where he's earned this role and he knows he's going to continue to have that role. I think he's going to stay, but I don't think it's impossible either that they they resign him and then either trade him this off seasonason or trade him before the deadline. And they just don't want to lose the asset. If you're in the situation that the Lakers are in where you're trying to build a team around Luca, letting the asset that is Austin Reeves just hit free agency and leave is really not an option. But I also don't think just letting him stick around and make $50 million a year and not be a good fit defensively alongside Luca is all that great of an option either.

[00:09:49]Especially when you consider like as good of an offensive player as he is, we've seen enough of him now in the postseason that we can just say, okay, his offense just isn't as good in the playoffs. Like he relies a lot on getting fouled, he's kind of more of like a crafty, sneaky offensive player.

[00:10:03]And when things slow down in the postseason, when teams are really athletic and physical and there's more contact that you can get away with, Austin Reed just isn't as good. And I I I think that's worth considering if you are the Lakers and you're trying to figure out should we commit to him as a central piece of this Luca era. If I had to put percentages on it, I'd say it's like a 5% chance he just straight up walks. Like a 35% chance that they sign and trade him and then a 60% chance they just sign him to a number and then they just figure it out later. But it is an interesting conversation in the context of how he performed in the postseason.

[00:10:36]Granted, he was hurt. He's coming back from an injury, but still it's hard to unsee how bad he was on defense and how limited at times he was on offense. Now, outside of the free agency questions contracts wise in general, obviously a lot depends on what they do with LeBron and Reeves. But if you assume like I am LeBron comes back on like a relatively large oneplus one and then they sign Reeves to something, you know, over the 40 million bucks or something for over three to four years, 40 million bucks a year over three to four years. They do still have some flexibility. They don't have a lot of long-term contracts other than those two guys and Luca, which is nice. Jared Vanderbilt just like taking up space on the roster is not ideal for the next two seasons, but it is what it is. The other thing to look at here though is that Luca is technically a 2028 free agent. And I know that sounds like a long time from now, but really what that means is next off seasonason, the 2027 offseason, the clock starts to tick. If you're the Lakers, Luca can start to put pressure on you a little bit. Say, "Hey, maybe this isn't really working out. They didn't, not that he didn't want to be there in the first place, but he didn't expect to be there.

[00:11:33]He was blindsided by the trade in the first place. If a year from now, the Lakers aren't putting a competitive roster around Luca. They don't have a particularly great year. You're looking at a situation similar to what the Cavs might be dealing with with Donovan Mitchell. The the Bucks certainly are dealing with with Giannis where you are on the clock because the guy could just opt out a year from then. Like we're a year away from Luca kind of putting them on the clock, which is crazy. But summer of 2027, he can leave in the summer of 2028. That is certainly something to keep in mind for the Lakers. Now, let's talk about picks and then trades, what this team needs, and then what I think is actually going to happen. Pick-s wise, they have the number 25 pick this year. Not as good as it would have been in past years because a bunch of guys are going back to school now because of NIL. They owe their 2027 pick top four protected next year. Unlikely they're going to keep that. Who knows? Like with the new lottery rules, they might keep it. Like they might have the 15th pick.

[00:12:24]They might lose in like the 78 playin game next year and then get a top four pick and then keep it. That would obviously be huge. Although I don't think the draft class is expected to be particularly strong next year and then they owe a 2029 first unprotected to Dallas as a result of the Anthony Davis trade. But they own everything else. So they've got some picks, they've got some swaps, and again they have that 25th pick this year as well that they can trade on draft night if they would like to. Now in terms of trades and what this team needs, they still desperately need some kind of front court help whether be in free agency or via trade. talked earlier about the free agency options.

[00:12:54]Unlikely is they may be Porzingis, Isaiah Hartinstein, guys like that, but that's still going to be the number one thing they're going to be looking at.

[00:13:01]DeAndre clearly wasn't the solution.

[00:13:03]Jackson Hayes is fine, but clearly not the solution. They tried the Mark Williams trade that they ended up rescending that. So looking around the league for like a like a Nick Claxton or someone like that or maybe moving up from 25 into like the top 15, try to get the Mora kid from Michigan. There's a variety of bigs that are at least relatively interesting. Maybe you think the arrow is going to be really good for them longterm, a guy that's already on the roster. But that's certainly one of the main things they're looking at. They could float the 25th pick and maybe a few picks and swaps if they really wanted to cuz they've shown that they want to be aggressive and getting a big for Luca. And I'll just say this, I would be very surprised if DeAndre Aton is your starting five for the Lakers to start next season. They're going to be moving and shaking and trying to find somebody that will fit in the front court. And if they can bring back LeBron Reeves and Ruie and then add a five they actually really like given how they looked at the end of the season I think they could have a pretty big ceiling pretty high ceiling I should say going into next year. Now the other way to do that would be the the sign and trade possibility with Austin Reeves I talked about earlier. Signing trades are notoriously difficult to figure out because financially they can just be a little bit difficult. the rules are much more restrictive uh especially when the number is going to be so big for Austin Reeves and the teams that would he would generally want to go to like the Nets teams like that they have cap space so they would probably just try to sign him anyway I'm not sure that there's a team out there that would give Austin Reeves $40 million a year and trade a significant piece like a big back for him but maybe they would maybe there's a team out there that would actually do it and I would keep an eye on that as a pathway to the Lakers upgrading their roster because you could certainly argue that there's a little bit of redundancy offensively between Luca and Austin Reeves and spreading that talent out to the front court, especially at the five would certainly be beneficial, but it is a little bit difficult to do anything like superstar-wise, like them trading for Giannis or Donovan Mitchell. It's difficult to do because they just don't have like the the core young player assets to put in the center of the trade other than Austin Reeves, but you'd have to do other stuff in exchange for like a Donovan Mitchell or a Giannis. And that other stuff is just difficult to find right now, the Lakers roster. They could technically do a sign and trade of Austin Reeves for for Giannis and add a bunch of picks and stuff, but I just don't think the Bucks would be particularly interested in that. Um like they they can create cap space and then maybe do that and it's like Luca and Giannis. But it's just an unrealistic thing to try to get to in my opinion just from an asset perspective. So what do I think is going to happen here with the future of the Lakers? My prediction would be LeBron comes back on a oneplus one that's not the max but still a pretty big number. They bring back Austin Reeves for like 354 $45 million a year uh for three to four years and then they bring back Ruie as well and then they're looking to kind of wheel a deal to upgrade to the five spot. I mentioned Nick Claxton earlier. Maybe they could try and figure out a way to get Isaiah Hart get the Thunder to opt Isaiah Hartinstein into his deal and then trade some stuff for him so the Thunder don't just lose him for nothing. Maybe there's a way to make those contracts work there. I think that is probably the most realistic path right now for the Lakers to finding an upgraded roster next year.

[00:15:49]And as I mentioned earlier, I do think there's a decent amount of pressure on them to have an upgraded roster when they begin next season because they just run it back with the same like it was clear by the end of the year that they were overperforming the roster that they had. And if they just have to do that again, that can't be what Luca imagined his Lakers run was going to be like.

[00:16:06]Now, everything can change if LeBron just up and retires. Like, at that point, you're almost certainly bringing back Reeves because you can't lose both those guys talent-wise in one year. but you also save a bunch of money theoretically and have a bunch of money available to potentially use elsewhere.

[00:16:19]Um, I don't know. That's going to be an interesting thing to kind of see how those two guys interact, Luke and LeBron, how those how their decisions are kind of paired moving forward. Does Learon want to get away from Lucas or he kind of has his quote unquote own team again or is it something where he saw the success they could have had towards the end of the year and really try and chase a potential championship?

[00:16:37]The really the hard the hardest thing for the Lakers and other teams in the west that aren't the Thunder or the Spurs is that the other teams those two teams just have such a bright future and are so young and so athletic that it's hard to imagine a scenario where um a team like the Lakers is able to put together enough to really compete with those teams. But every year that you have Luca, you have a chance. And I think if he was healthy with the way they were playing going into the postseason, I I probably would have picked Thunder and six in the series.

[00:17:01]But I I certainly would not just count Luca out at all. And anytime you have that kind of guy, you got to try and build around him. you got to try and go for it. And I expect them to do that.