New reports suggest the Los Angeles Lakers are eyeing a trade before the start of the 2026-27 NBA season, but Bronny James should feel safe for now; his name is not at the top of the chopping block.
James has been mentioned as a Lakers trade candidate ever since his father, LeBron James, left the team in free agency. He’s also been named as one of a few players who could be waived or cut before the season begins for Los Angeles to get to the NBA’s 15-man roster limit.
However, according to Lakers insider Jovan Buha, the son of the league’s all-time leading scorer should feel safe for now, as Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy are the two more likely candidates to be traded or waived in the coming days or weeks.
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Despite James’ previously uncertain status on this Lakers roster heading into the season, as Buha said on the latest episode of his show, the 21-year-old appears to be safe for the time being and should plan on being in Los Angeles for the 2026-27 season.
“I think if the Lakers were cutting or trading Bronny, it likely would have happened already,” Buha said. “The fact that he’s on the roster… he’s probably in that group of players that are quote-unquote safe.”
Speaking at a recent press conference, Lakers head coach JJ Redick also praised the younger James as a ‘good basketball player,’ and as Buha noted, if Los Angeles wasn’t expecting to keep him around, there’s a good chance he would have been traded or waived already.
However, and this is a big however, that does not guarantee James’ spot on the Lakers roster this season. Buha tipped him, along with Knecht and Hardy, as a potential trade candidate if the franchise is serious about adding another big man for the upcoming season.
“If you swapped Knecht and Hardy or Knecht and Bronny, or Bronny – some combination, like two of those three guys – for Jericho Sims, now your roster, you have another center in the mix, and you have a little bit more confidence in the non-Looney option,” he added. “The goal at a minimum would be a better player than the outgoing players, but ideally addressing one of the positions of need, which the most obvious one is the center spot.”
So for now, though James is an obvious Lakers trade candidate, he should feel safe for the time being.
Regardless, the NBA is a brutal business, and nobody on this Lakers roster should feel safe in their role heading into the new season.
Not Every LA Player Is Safe Right Now With A Roster Cut Incoming
As Buha and NBA insider Brett Siegel noted, Knecht and Hardy, not James, are the two most likely trade or cut candidates heading into Lakers training camp.
“I would say Dalton and Hardy are probably the two guys they’re looking to get off of,” Buha stated. “If they can’t, then they have to waive one of them. And I think at this point, Hardy is more established. He’s previously played with Luka on that Finals team in 2024, and I think Dalton would be the one that gets waived.”
“There’s going to be a lot of pressure on Dalton Knecht to fight for this roster spot with Jaden Hardy in training camp,” Siegel said. “One of them is most likely going to be cut, and it wouldn’t shock me if it ended up being Dalton Knecht, but it really does depend on what happens here in training camp for the Lakers.”
Los Angeles needs to make at least one roster cut, and if it isn’t James, Knecht and Hardy are the names likely to be moved.
The Lakers trading one or both of them for another big man would likely be the best-case scenario, but assuming they’ve been canvassing the trade market this summer and haven’t gotten a deal done yet suggests the market for each is relatively low.
Buha said he thinks the Lakers want to make another trade before the season begins, and if it’s not moving a bigger salary like Jarred Vanderbilt, Knecht and Hardy are the two top candidates to not be on the roster by opening night.
It could be James too, but at this point, Bronny feels like a safer option to stay in Los Angeles compared to his two other young teammates.
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