All eyes are on the Los Angeles Lakers to see what direction they will take in the last leg of the 2026 offseason. Media day and training camp are right around the corner, and it doesn’t appear that the Lakers will make a move to acquire another player. But that doesn’t mean the roster won’t look different in a matter of weeks.
One of the pressing orders of business is trimming the Lakers’ roster to 15 players. The good news is that they are only one player above the NBA-mandated limit. The bad news is that things aren’t as simple as cutting someone and moving forward. While the Lakers could waive a player and go into the season as is, the preferred approach may be to make a trade of some sort, especially one that sends out two players and brings back just one while the team’s draft capital remains intact.
Likeliest Scenario for Lakers Revealed
As Lakers reporter Khobi Price of the California Post noted, L.A.’s best bet is a consolidation trade that makes the team roster-compliant. A deal would have to include Jaden Hardy, Dalton Knecht and Jarred Vanderbilt.
“This is the likeliest trade scenario for the Lakers to get down to 15 players,” Price wrote. “A 2-for-1 involving two of Hardy, Knecht and/or Vanderbilt, and a team with at least one open roster spot and a player on an expiring contract, would get the Lakers at the 15 players they need to be at by mid-October. There’s a chance they’d still be able to acquire an asset such as a second-round pick this way. But even if they didn’t, this scenario would make them roster compliant and maintain future financial flexibility.”
But the Lakers have dealt with the same problem all summer, especially involving Vanderbilt, who has been challenging to move because he is still owed roughly $25 million over the next two seasons. Plus, the Lakers, already with limited draft capital, would have to pay quite the price just to get one player off the team. While the Lakers had the option to waive and stretch Vanderbilt’s remaining contract, they chose not to.
Axing a Player Isn’t Ideal, Either
Could general manager Rob Pelinka call someone to the office and deliver the tough message that their time with the Lakers is over?
“The least desirable option — outside of a trade that adds money onto the team’s salary cap for future seasons — would be outright waiving a player on an expiring deal, such as Hardy or Knecht,” Price wrote. “It would put the Lakers at 15 players. But it would also mean they’d have to eat the dead money for the rest of the season since the deadline to waive a player and use the stretch provision on their current-season salary passed last month.”
Waiving either Knecht or even James or Hardy isn’t the end of the world because none of the three players make a ton of money. Worst-case scenario, the Lakers would have a couple million more on their books for a couple of seasons.
Of course, this isn’t the only concern the Lakers have. The team still has holes in the frontcourt. While the starting power forward job could be handled by committee, the same cannot be said for the backup center position, as the newly-signed Kevon Looney remains the only true center behind Walker Kessler.
L.A. will have until the trade deadline to shop their needs. And if not by February, then they’ll be entering another pivotal summer.
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