The Los Angeles Lakers, per annual tradition, were among the hottest topics of conversation at NBA Summer League this past week, especially if you count the one question they’re merely tangentially involved in: Where will LeBron James play next season?
It, of course, will not be with the Lakers, who decisively put a foot into the ground this summer and moved the organization fully into Luka Dončić’s direction.
The cost was severe. The Lakers lost their most accomplished player — a four-time champ and the league’s all-time leading scorer — in James. They also bid farewell to, by percentage, their top-two 3-point shooters in Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura. Two centers from last season’s roster (Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes) joined new teams. And the Lakers lost their best point-of-attack defender in Marcus Smart, who reunited with Rockets coach Ime Udoka in Houston.
Those departures equal nearly 80 percent of the minutes played by the Lakers this postseason and more than 80 percent of the points they scored in the playoffs.
And while the players they replaced them with are universally less experienced with almost no postseason production, word out of the team’s veteran minicamp this past week in Las Vegas was optimistic. The biggest reason was the offensive upside, the number of players on the team who can punish a defender off the dribble having multiplied this summer.
The most confusing team of the NBA offseason
Esfandiar Baraheni
It’s a crucial skill on the Lakers — the spacing that shooting can create and the overreactions Dončić and Austin Reaves induce with their ability to put defenses into scramble-and-recovery mode. Kennard instantly boosted the Lakers’ ceiling with his knack for creating and putting teams in the blender, and the Lakers can now do so with Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and even Sandro Mamukelashvili. It was one of the big takeaways for the people who watched the Lakers go through workouts in Las Vegas.
Another consensus: The Lakers roster isn’t complete. Not now, not long term.
The Athletic has reported on the Lakers’ interest in free agent Jonathan Kuminga since late June, but it appears that momentum has stalled with the sides far apart on terms and L.A. not overly motivated to push significant draft capital into sign-and-trade scenarios. Still, he appears to be the biggest upside play left on the table, and could re-emerge as a target if his market remains tepid. Cleveland, according to league sources, is the team most-often connected to Kuminga other than the Lakers.
The team, as The Stein Line reported, has interest in free agent Matisse Thybulle, a top-tier defensive wing who has become a good catch-and-shoot player in Portland when he’s been able to stay on the court. That, of course, has been the issue, with Thybulle playing only 45 combined games the past two seasons. He did, though, finish last season healthy.
The Lakers are still monitoring the market for big men, team sources told The Athletic. They traded for Walker Kessler and signed Kevon Looney to play center, and Mamukelashvili can play the position, too. The team could address the position either by trade or signing, like with potentially adding Thybulle. The roster is currently at full capacity.
The moves left, like most of the ones to come in the future, will be made on the margins. It was another topic of conversation in Las Vegas, with members of the scouting community wondering if and when the Lakers will hire the second assistant general manager that Rob Pelinka discussed in his news conference following last season.
The Lakers hired Rohan Ramadas as assistant general manager to run their analytics department, one pillar of the offseason expansion. The other was intended to have a focus on development and scouting, two areas — and it can’t be overstated — that will be critical for the Lakers as they build around the Dončić-Reaves-Kessler core. The Lakers conducted interviews with multiple candidates dating back to last season but have yet to make a hire. People with interest in the position were left confused about the process, according to league sources.
Two candidates, Minnesota’s Steve Senior and Philadelphia’s Prosper Karangwa, are widely believed to have turned the Lakers down before staying with their current organizations. Adding the head of scouting is seen as the first step for the Lakers to address a longtime need: a lack of a robust pro scouting department. The Lakers’ 2025-26 media guide lists just three full-time domestic scouts and two international scouts. All, per league sources, had been primarily (if not fully) tasked with amateur scouting.
With limited pathways for improvement via spending or trade, an investment into scouting (paired with the ongoing investments in analytics, strategy and biomedical) is seen leaguewide as a natural step.
The Lakers could be on the edge of making a move on the margins, rewarding one of the best unsigned players at summer league, Arthur Kaluma, with a two-way deal before some other team beats them to it. Kaluma averaged 18.6 points on 60.9 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from 3, the 6-foot-7 forward building off a successful season for the Lakers in the G League.
The current two-ways played to mixed reviews this summer. Second-year guard Chris Mañon has an unquestioned ability to be a physically annoying perimeter defender. His shot has improved. But scouts question whether his skills will translate to NBA ballhandlers. Rookie AK Okereke earned strong reviews from Lakers coaches for his work on the defensive end and his shooting, particularly from the corners — a reason why the team prioritized him in the moments after the second round of the NBA Draft. The Lakers also immediately added guard Peter Suder, though he struggled to find his way in the Lakers’ summer schedule. His summer ended with him not playing in the Lakers’ semifinal loss in Vegas despite being available, a rarity for players under contract. The Lakers would need to waive one to sign Kaluma to a two-way deal.
The big decisions have already been made, the Lakers’ path set because of them. The ways that they can course-correct, though, will be made through a series of smaller decisions — any of which could eventually be the difference between success and failure.
