Los Angeles Lakers' Search for a Big Man After Kuminga's Decision
The Los Angeles Lakers built their summer around one chase.
Jonathan Kuminga chose Minnesota.
That single decision has forced a franchise used to dictating the market into something far less familiar: scrambling for scraps in a thin big-man pool with almost no financial flexibility and even fewer trade chips.
A Miss, a Hard Cap, and a Crowded Roster
As Khobi Price of the California Post detailed, missing out on Kuminga didn’t just sting; it exposed a glaring hole.
“The Lakers’ failed pursuit of Jonathan Kuminga, who is signing a two-year deal with the Timberwolves, has left them with a hole in the frontcourt,” Price wrote.
The numbers around that hole are brutal. The Lakers sit just $8.1 million below the NBA’s $209 million first-apron threshold, hard-capped for the 2026-27 season, and already have 16 players on guaranteed contracts.
So they’re overstocked and still undermanned.
They need a power forward. They need a backup center. And with training camp about a month away, they don’t have the cap space or the draft capital to shop at the top of the market.
This is bargain hunting with championship expectations.
Walker Kessler’s Shadow and a Thin Market
The urgency at backup center is obvious. Walker Kessler arrived from Utah in July in a seismic sign-and-trade, but he logged only five games last season. Betting the interior of your defense on a big who barely saw the floor the year before is a risk. Not insuring that risk would be reckless.
Price points to the main issue: “These limitations, in addition to a big man market that has a high demand but low supply of quality options, are why the Lakers don’t have many trade options for big man depth.”
The pressure, then, isn’t just to find a body. It’s to find someone who can actually survive playoff minutes, on a budget, without costing the few remaining future picks they control.
Sims and Smith: Realistic, Not Glamorous
Within that tight framework, two names keep surfacing: Jericho Sims of the Milwaukee Bucks and Jalen Smith of the Chicago Bulls.
Price identifies them as realistic trade targets. They’re not headliners. They’re the type of players contenders try to steal from deeper in another team’s rotation when the asset cupboard is nearly bare.
The Lakers’ draft stash underlines the problem. They own only their 2033 second-round pick outright. They hold a pair of second-rounders from the Wizards in 2031 and 2032, acquired when they flipped Deandre Ayton for Jaden Hardy. Their lone first-round pick they can cleanly swap is in 2032. Beyond that, the assets are mostly players on deals that could effectively expire if team options for 2027-28 are declined — names like Hardy and Dalton Knecht.
That’s not the kind of package that pries loose a starting-caliber big. It might, however, be enough for a No. 3 center or an expensive bench piece a front office is willing to cash in.
Jericho Sims: Run, Jump, and a Question Mark
Sims, 27, sits behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware in Milwaukee. Price notes he may be on the move, which automatically places him on the Lakers’ radar.
The fit is easy to picture. His athletic profile jumps off the page.
“Sims fits the run-and-jump archetype that you’d love to put around Doncic because he’s big and a tremendous athlete,” The Athletic’s Dan Woike wrote.
He’s a vertical spacer, a lob threat, a rebounder. He lives above the rim, exactly the kind of big who can thrive next to a high-usage star.
There are real concerns. Scouts question his defense away from the basket. He has never produced consistently over a long stretch. He’s currently slotted as Milwaukee’s third center for a reason.
But that’s also what makes him attainable. As Woike suggested, the Lakers could realistically dangle second-round draft capital to try to pry him loose. For a team boxed in by the apron and the hard cap, that kind of swing — low cost, specific role — is about as clean as it gets.
Jalen Smith: Motor, Shooting, and a Price Tag
Smith, 26, offers something different. He’s smaller at 6-foot-8, more of a modern hybrid big than a traditional rim protector, but his profile has fans inside the organization.
“Smith has some fans within the organization because he plays with motor and has worked himself into a pretty good outside shooter,” Woike wrote.
That combination — energy, floor spacing, and enough size to function as a small-ball five — fits neatly into what the Lakers have tried to build around their star perimeter creators.
The complication is cost and context.
Smith is on a one-year, $9.5 million deal. For a team flirting with the apron, that number matters. So does his size. Undersized bigs get exposed in May and June if the matchups turn against them.
There’s also the matter of Chicago’s stance. Woike notes that the previous Bulls regime liked Smith, which clouds his availability. If the new front office shares that belief, the Lakers could find themselves in a bidding war they’re not equipped to win.
A Frontcourt Question That Won’t Go Away
This is where the Lakers are, with camp looming: hard-capped, asset-light, and still one big man short of a rotation that makes sense.
Sims brings bounce and verticality. Smith brings motor and shooting. Neither solves every issue. Both, in the right role, could plug a critical gap behind Kessler and stabilize a frontcourt that just lost its primary target to a conference rival.
The Lakers don’t have the luxury of waiting for the perfect option. Not this summer. Not with this cap sheet. Not with this roster count.
So the question hanging over the next few weeks is simple and unforgiving: will they find the right big man to protect this season’s ambitions, or will Kuminga’s decision echo into the paint all year long?
