2026-27 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

Yeah I'm more and more out of Kuminga. I just think he will come with the wrong mindset. Only way it could work is us giving him +20M per year on a 3y contract. But I'm not seeing that happening. And even that could backfire if he think he's an all star and wants a max or 40m+ plus in his career.

Because if he comes for a year or with unguaranteed money, he's going to play for that contract and that comes at the expense of the role we need him to play. Scoring needs to be the 3rd or so worry in his head, but if he's playing for a contract it will be his first.

Demanding around 20M after a few years without ever settling as a starting caliber player, worries me. He's not looking to bet on himself but rather believes he's already that type of player and that's just wrong.

During the downtime I started getting excited with the prospect of Cam Johnson. He's a low maintenance guy, young but with experience, that knows exactly his role and will come to play it. He's a very good fit with the current group, not just because he's white. He has a relationship with JJ too from the Old Man pod group.
Although as an expiring I'd expect Denver to be able to find other suitors, but maybe not and we could get him. I think he can also be a guy we can lock for multiple years at a lower AAV as a starter/top bench piece.

Vando is the first name thrown in such a trade, but I think Denver would accept a similar non-Vando package we would throw for Kuminga. Maybe Jake goes there, that they can use to continue competitive and save a bunch of money with Hardy and Knecht being sent to other teams. A bit harder to do because we'd need 2 teams to dump them but still doable as they are low salaries and I imagine similar conversations already happened in the Kuminga deal.

Fearing that both Kuminga, Watson and Duren will extend this offseason until end of August though. But we are already good enough to be able to wait for all those chips to fall

 

I am firmly in "screw Bazinga" camp.

 

Lakers Should Pivot From Jonathan Kuminga to Intriguing Trade Target
The Los Angeles Lakers need to move on from their pursuit of Jonathan Kuminga and try to trade for this veteran 3-and-D wing.
Ryan Ward

Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers have been as active as any team in the NBA this summer, with the storied franchise entering rebuild mode following the departure of LeBron James and the intention of putting the right talent around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.

As a result of the moves made, Doncic and Reaves will be practically playing with a new squad, led by the acquisition of Walker Kessler and the signings of Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Ziaire Williams, Matisse Thybulle, Kevon Looney, and the drafting of Cameron Carr.

Even though the team is over the maximum of 15 players, it isn’t done making moves, with rumors still swirling about the Lakers being linked to Jonathan Kuminga and wanting to add another big man to the frontcourt.

Lakers Need to Pivot From Jonathan Kuminga to Cameron Johnson
Denver Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic
Mar 14, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Denver Nuggets forward Cameron Johnson (23) controls the ball while under pressure from Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) during the second half at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: William Liang-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
With the pursuit of Kuminga seemingly getting more and more complicated each day, the Lakers should head in another direction, with Cameron Johnson of the Denver Nuggets potentially there for the taking.

According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Nuggets have been getting several calls from teams interested in trading for Johnson.

Numerous teams have called the Denver Nuggets hoping they’d be willing to dump forward Cam Johnson, who’s owed $23.06 million in the final year of his contract, but those inquiries have been rebuffed, league sources told HoopsHype.
Although neither the Lakers nor any other team is directly mentioned by Scotto, Los Angeles should at least explore trading for Johnson.

Kuminga is the younger option at 23 compared to Johnson, who is 30, and the youth movement seems to be the way the Lakers are going right now, but the one-time NBA champion comes with red flags, with both the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks giving up on him.

Plus, Kuminga seems determined to sign a massive contract, either this summer or in the near future, which might not be the wisest move by Rob Pelinka and company

https://www.si.com/nba/lakers/onsi/...m-jonathan-kuminga-to-intriguing-trade-target

 

I've been seeing some content on that the past couple days. Makes sense, but people are adament that Denver absolutely won't trade with us. So maybe we need to look elsewhere?

Proabably that Kuzma/Sims type of deal. Kuzma would just act as a placeholder for whenever Thoero and/or Kaluma are ready.

 

I mean with the names being tossed around of Richards, Jalen Smith, and Cam......as long as we can pull off the right trade........I think it's worth the pivot.

 

How is Jalen Smith vs. power-forwards?

 

No,Hezonja and Cleveland still trying to get a deal

According to insider Mark Stein, the Madrid club is in no hurry to let the forward go because it believes that the player has not fulfilled the conditions of the return option NBA. Hezonja had until 20 July to leave «Real Madrid», however an agreement with «Cavaliers» was not reached until 26 July.

At the same time «Cleveland» continues to work on completing the deal and expects to sign the Croatian forward.
Nothing to do with Dubai which is also playing in Euro league like Real

 

i'm still all in on kuminga. i don't think him wanting 20 per is unreasonable, tbh. i disagree that he hasn't shown anything, and i could still imagine him turning into a player that people think is worth 20-25 per (starting caliber). again, i'm not sure he hasn't proven that he's starting caliber already. steve kerr didn't like his fit with how he likes to do things is all.

anyway, it's looking like that ship may be sailing, as i think the real issue is that we haven't been able to get an offer much higher than mle-ish. sounds like we can get a team to bite on laravia or hardy into space, but not another team to also eat knecht--or it takes too much draft capital, and probably nobody will take vando for basically anything we have to offer. that's ok; he's expiring next year, and we can do that dance again from a better position.

i also understand kuminga wanting to wait things out. he's not wrong that something could shake loose on the market, perhaps creating a TE somewhere that could fit the salary he wants in a place that wants him. it may not be highly likely, but i don't for a second believe denver isn't trying to shed some pretty big salary right now, and even if they're not, the resolution of watson (and perhaps mathurin's) RFA stuff could also create some fallout via multi-team S&Ts.


i also hold out little hope we could get johnson. getting to his number, like kuminga, will involve third and even fourth team involvement (again, i'm assuming vando's going nowhere), AND you have denver wanting to not help us at all.

 

i'm pretty much on board with most of that/understand it. i just don't agree with the bolded, as i indicated above. i don't think him not wanting to play for substantially less than what his market value was a year ago is some condemnation of his character.

further--and contrary to most--the contract i don't want him on is a vet min. worst case, he's a problematic distraction, putting himself ahead of the team. best case, he's great and just walks in FA like monk did.

if we can't get him on a 3/60 (which i think is about the best we could theoretically do), i would just move on.

but there's no real urgency to move on right now, as the whole enterprise has ground to a halt, league-wide.

 

I like this idea a lot. Smith is a guy who’s gonna come in and quietly do his job. Reminds me of the old throwback 4’s we had like Kurt Rambis and AC Green.

 

Athletic again.
Lakers could use depth behind Walker Kessler, Kevon Looney. What are their options?



Dan Woike
By Dan Woike
July 28, 2026 Updated 12:02 pm PDT


Walker Kessler is hardly the first NBA player to post a video like this. The new Los Angeles Lakers center is in the gym, lifting weights, cold-plunging, doing agility drills and slamming basketballs. He may, though, be the first to share a summer workout mixtape video to the twangs of a Zach Bryan ballad.

The details with Kessler all matter. He’s the biggest swing the Lakers took this summer, the richest bet they made. He cost the Lakers $130 million, two unprotected first-round picks and two unprotected first-round swaps.

Kessler, who turned 25 Sunday, played in just five games last season and 58 the year before, numbers that are, in part, explainable in the context of the Utah Jazz’s conservative approach to injuries while aggressively pursuing the best possible draft lottery odds. But it’s also one of the key reasons why some rival scouts and executives have been critical of the Lakers’ plan.

“He better be good,” said one Western Conference scout who, like other sources in this story, was granted anonymity to discuss teams’ strategies. The words were cloaked in an “or else” tone.

Part of the reason so much hinges on Kessler is the way the Lakers and Luka Dončić prioritized him. Another part is that the Lakers have only Kevon Looney as a backup. Sandro Mamukelashvili and Jarred Vanderbilt are in pencil further down the Lakers’ depth chart, but neither would be capable of playing center on a full-time basis should they need to.

Looney played only 21 games last season with the New Orleans Pelicans, in his first year outside of Golden State. He played 314 total regular-season games in the four prior seasons — a remarkable run of durability, with only Jonas Valančiūnas appearing in more games at center. For Looney, who entered the NBA with a hip injury, the games and minutes crashing the glass and setting bruising screens for the Warriors had to have some cumulative impact, limiting his mobility and, last season, his availability.

Top League Content
Between Looney’s 21 games and the five Kessler played last season, the Lakers are, according to team and league sources, hunting for reinforcement at the center position. But that search won’t be easy. The center market is largely a mess. In addition, the Lakers already have 16 guaranteed contracts and no open roster spots.

Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?
Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd
The Lakers, it appeared, were ready to roll with Deandre Ayton at center — with Jaxson Hayes leaving for Utah — until the team was able to snag a pair of second-round picks from the Washington Wizards for Ayton.

While Los Angeles believes in Kessler and he was either near or at the absolute top of Dončić’s wish list, scarcity undoubtedly played a role in the cost the Lakers had to pay. Had it not been Kessler, the Lakers, according to team and league sources, would’ve likely tried to sign free agent center Mitchell Robinson, who left the New York Knicks to sign a three-year, $47.4 million deal with Boston.

Robinson is one of 13 different centers to sign deals for more than the minimum this summer, a group that includes players like Jock Landale ($14.1 million this season), Robert Williams III ($14 million), Jusuf Nurkić ($11 million), Day’Ron Sharpe ($10 million), Moe Wagner ($9.5 million) and Quinten Post ($8.7 million).

Nick Richards, Drew Eubanks and Xavier Tillman are among the centers currently unsigned, and any team entertaining trading one of its centers will be operating from a strong position. Supply is low. Cost is high. And the Lakers might need to pay.

While it’s unclear how the Lakers will attack this roster hole, conversations with both team and league sources revealed the types of players Los Angeles could chase.

Jericho Sims, Bucks
Sims fits the run-and-jump archetype that you’d love to put around Dončić because he’s big and a tremendous athlete. He’s currently slated as the Bucks’ No. 3 center behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware. Scouts have defensive concerns away from the basket, and Sims has never really been able to produce consistently. But he’s a dunker and rebounder whom the Lakers could use second-round draft capital to try and pry loose.

Jalen Smith, Bulls
Smith has some fans within the organization because he plays with motor and has worked himself into a pretty good outside shooter. But Smith is expensive (one-year, $9.5 million remaining on his deal) and undersized at 6 foot 8. The previous Bulls’ regime was a fan of his, which puts his actual availability into question.

Karlo Matković, Pelicans
Looney became a free agent in New Orleans when the team declined his option for next year, a move the Pelicans made a day after officially picking up Matković’s option. While he’s a bit of a tweener at power forward and center, Matković has a lot of fans around the NBA. The trouble is, New Orleans has signaled to intrigued teams this summer that it doesn’t have interest in trading him.

Unsigned free agents
Richards is probably the biggest name here thanks to his counting stats and experience as a part-time starter, but his inability to consistently impact winning has kept teams from getting all that excited.

Eubanks has fans, but again, the consistency, especially on the defensive side, is why he’s looking for an NBA home. Vets like Bismack Biyombo, Mason Plumlee and Dwight Powell aren’t exactly the kinds of players the Lakers could count on for 10 starts in the middle of January should they need them.

If there doesn’t sound like there’s an obvious answer here, it’s because there isn’t. Other names could shake loose, either via buyout or trade. But the position, on a leaguewide level, is in high demand.

Dan Woike
|
Senior Writer, Lakers
Dan Woike covers the Los Angeles Lakers for The Athletic. He's written about professional basketball in Los Angeles since 2011, first for the Orange County Register and most recently for the Los Angeles Times. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the Pro Basketball Writers Association, the Los Angeles Press Club and the California News Publishers Association. He's originally from Chicago.
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Jul 28, 2026
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How was it?

 

This is exactly my view, word by word, great stuff.

I like Smith but I think he's a duplication of Mamu. He's really a 4/stretch 5, good on boards that developed a 3 point shot. Same issues we have with Mamu starting (one of them or Luka guarding the 3) so I'm a bit iffy on that. I think we need more of a 3/4 than a 4/5.
I'd like Smith for the roster and solves the issue we currently have if Kessler misses game as he could eat those minutes with Mamu/Looney, but only on top of getting another wing, not as the solution for starting 4.

Hell, I think if he comes we still start Mamu. We paid him more and he was the first choice, so it would be weird to start Smith ahead of him.

 

Yeah, if we were getting him to be the 4, it would essentially be the same probelm as having Maumu at the 4. Mamu actually has a better DBPM than Smith, but Smith is the better rim-protector. I'm not sure how he moves his feet on defense, I havent seen enough of Smith in game action, etc. Getting him to be an extra center might be okay, but i dont think it really solves the potential power forward problem.

 

Regarding Kuminga:

Kobe: If a player needs convincing to play for Lakers, 'he ain't the one'

He can go rot in Cleveland for all I care

 

probably begged the sixers to sign him so he could play with his bff lebron and they said no