The Los Angeles Lakers called the Oklahoma City Thunder in June to inquire about the availability of Lugentz Dort but ultimately went another direction this offseason, perhaps missing an opportunity in the process for the exact type of player L.A. still doesn’t have on its roster.
Oklahoma City flipped Dort to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, July 19 for an exceedingly reasonable price that the Lakers could have afforded easily and still addressed their need for a rim-running, rim-protecting center alongside Luka Doncic.
“The Oklahoma City Thunder trading All-Defensive wing Lu Dort to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal that sends three second-round picks to OKC, former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher to the Dallas Mavericks and Ryan Nembhard to Atlanta, sources tell ESPN,” Shams Charania of ESPN reported.
Lu Dort Would Have Filled Explicit Need on Wing for Lakers
GettyLuguentz Dort, formerly of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Three second-round picks is ultimately the price for which Los Angeles could have secured Dort, a championship-winning 3-and-D wing who shoots nearly 36 percent from behind the arc on 5.6 attempts per game for his career and earned First-Team All-Defense honors in the NBA in 2024-25.
Across his seven-year tenure in the league (432 games played, 423 starts), Dort has averaged 11.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 28.9 minutes per night. When called upon, Dort can do more offensively. He averaged 17.2 points per game in 2021-22 and shot 41.2 percent from the 3-point line two years back when the Thunder won a title.
Dort will play the upcoming season at 27 and would have been an elite fit with the Lakers next to Doncic and Austin Reaves as on-ball creators.
Beyond that, Dort’s $17.7 million salary figure in 2026-27 is essentially just $2.5 million more than the non-taxpayer’s midlevel exception of $15.1 million for the upcoming season, rendering his contract a significant value given what he could have provided to the Lakers.
Lakers Overspent to Secure Walker Kessler From Utah Jazz
GettyWalker Kessler of the Los Angeles Lakers.
By comparison, L.A. inked center Walker Kessler to a four-year contract worth almost $130 million after sending two first-round picks and two second-round picks to the Utah Jazz in an expensive sign-and-trade deal.
Kessler fulfills the Lakers’ mandate of adding a potentially elite defensive anchor and lob threat to its arsenal, which Doncic essentially demanded.
However, the concerns moving forward are the level of play Kessler can actually achieve, the extensive price at which the Lakers acquired him and how that cost hamstrings the team with regards to the other roster improvements it can make for at least a couple of years in the future.
Kessler, who turns 25 next week, averaged 11.1 points, 12.2 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.4 blocks per game across 58 starts two seasons ago. However, injury robbed him of all but five contests last year.
He’s a solid pick-and-roll player, though far from a great one, and will have to improve several areas of his game offensively to maximize what the Lakers might accomplish with Doncic and Reaves on the ball and Kessler working off them.
The Lakers also essentially emptied the chamber on the Kessler trade and have limited draft assets they can deal in any future moves. L.A. does have access to multiple tradable second-round picks and a couple of first-round pick swaps through 2030, which would have been enough to secure Dort.
However, the team’s current financial situation would have demanded a sign-and-trade deal with the Thunder to absorb Dort’s salary for the upcoming year, which would have been complicated and potentially unfeasible based on the agreement the Thunder made Sunday.
Lakers Miss Opportunity, as Thunder Trade Lu Dort to Hawks