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NEW YORK — For most of the past month or so leading into the NBA’s trade deadline, team and league sources have at least entertained the notion that the Los Angeles Lakers could pull something off.
Maybe, if things broke just right, expiring veterans could be bundled into a more useful, higher-paid player. Maybe, if their former first-round pick showed signs of real growth, the Lakers could recoup some draft assets or even use him as a sweetener in a trade. Maybe the right big man or point-of-attack defender would shake loose, and the team could justify using its lone first-round pick to go and get him.
It required squinting, but there was a narrow path.
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With Thursday’s trade deadline approaching, that path has only narrowed further. League sources say the Lakers have mostly been pushed to the margins. Some of it is their own doing. The Lakers’ strategy is built on preserving as much cap space as possible next summer when LeBron James’ $52 million contract expires and Austin Reaves’ cap hold projects to be half of his eventual salary. They will also have another $22.5 million coming off the books when contracts expire for veterans Maxi Kleber and Gabe Vincent.
To date, the Lakers have shown significant reluctance to eat into that space.
League sources said, for example, that the Lakers’ preliminary interest in De’Andre Hunter centered on whether Jarred Vanderbilt could be included in a deal, because Vanderbilt is owed $12.4 million next season and has a $13.2 million player option in 2027. Acquiring Hunter strictly for expiring contracts would have cost nearly $25 million in future flexibility. The Cleveland Cavaliers ultimately traded him to the Sacramento Kings for another Lakers target, Keon Ellis, and for guard Dennis Schröder, who has two years and nearly $30 million remaining on his contract after this year.
If the Lakers preserve their cap space, they could pair it with up to three first-round picks to acquire a player outright. They could also make aggressive offers to an intriguing class of restricted free agents that includes Denver’s Peyton Watson, Utah’s Walker Kessler, Houston’s Tari Eason and Detroit’s Jalen Duren.
Restricted free agency is traditionally a tough road to travel, but the Lakers’ books are clean enough that they could put real pressure on one or two of those teams with aggressive offers. The current value of the team’s expiring contracts is functionally zero if the Lakers are unwilling to take on longer-term contracts in return.
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Some rival executives are hearing that the Lakers remain willing to move their 2031 or 2032 first-round pick for the right wing. The problem is, that player doesn’t appear to be available, at least at that price point.
The Lakers had conversations with New Orleans earlier this season about Herbert Jones and were told the Pelicans intended to keep him. The price for Trey Murphy III, another favorite of some in the Lakers’ organization, was even higher.
According to league sources, the Lakers have been linked to virtually every defensive wing on the market, including Golden State’s Jonathan Kuminga, the Clippers’ Derrick Jones Jr. and Chicago’s Isaac Okoro.
Kuminga and Jones are currently injured, though. Okoro and Jones also carry contracts that would cut into cap space next summer, while Kuminga’s contract includes a team option for next year.
That has put the Lakers in a tight spot — yet again — with the team possessing clear needs for roster help but incredibly limited means to acquire it and, perhaps, better options in the future that they could limit with the wrong move now. The Lakers have just one second-round pick available to trade in addition to a first. Their 2026 second got sent out in the Marc Gasol sign-and-trade in 2020, second-round picks in 2027, 2030 and 2031 were sent to Brooklyn last season for Dorian Finney-Smith, and their 2028 and 2029 second-rounders were used to acquire Rui Hachimura.
Second-year wing Dalton Knecht has been viewed around the league as widely available since the Lakers included him in the ultimately rescinded Mark Williams last trade. Team sources say Knecht hasn’t requested a trade, but he would welcome a fresh start. He’s been out of the Lakers’ rotation over the last 10 games. If the Lakers can find a suitor, the return is expected to be very low.
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Naji Marshall has also generated interest around the Lakers, though the pathways to any deal with the Dallas Mavericks after the Luka Dončić trade last season have gigantic “road closed” signs all over them. The same is probably true for Daniel Gafford.
Sources inside the Lakers locker room are fans of Brooklyn center Day’Ron Sharpe, who had 19 points and 14 rebounds in the Nets’ loss to the Lakers on Tuesday night.
The Giannis Antetokounmpo trade chase could create ripples beneficial to the Lakers. As teams maneuver for financial flexibility, the Lakers’ expiring deals and future first-round pick could get them in conversations for high-end role players like Minnesota’s Donte DiVincenzo or Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen, though those scenarios are dependent on the Lakers’ expiring money landing with a third team (and the Lakers having limited sweeteners to incentivize teams to aid in a deal). And if Antetokounmpo remains in Milwaukee through the deadline, many suitors would have more flexibility in the summer to rearrange their books.
No one internally is writing off the possibility that the Lakers will look different after Thursday’s trade deadline. Rival teams still describe them as “active.” But the reality is their lack of draft assets, players with trade value and focus on the summer could mean meaningful changes are more likely to come later rather than now.