Lakers Struggle Amid Ownership Drama and Trade Market Challenges
The Los Angeles Lakers have spent the summer in the headlines, and very little of it has been about basketball. For a franchise trying to navigate a pivotal stretch of the Luka Doncic era, the noise upstairs is starting to drown out the work downstairs.
Ownership drama has become the backdrop to everything. As Lakers insider Khobi Price detailed, Mark Walter recently sold the team for a staggering $12.5 billion to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner, a move that came amid a federal investigation into Walter’s financials. Not long after, the Buss family tried to cash out and sell their stake as well.
That’s not a normal offseason. That’s a power struggle.
Inside that storm, even the kind of legacy pull the Lakers used to take for granted isn’t landing. Klay Thompson — whose father is a Laker legend and openly tried to steer his son to Los Angeles — chose Miami instead. When a franchise built on star gravity suddenly can’t close those kinds of deals, you start to ask hard questions about how the rest of the league views the current state of the purple and gold.
And all of this is happening while the front office is supposed to be building a contender around Doncic.
A Search for a Power Forward, Stalled at the Top
On the court, the issue is clear enough: the Lakers need a starting power forward who can complement Doncic from Day 1. They’ve been linked to just about every available — or potentially available — forward on the market: P.J. Washington, Derrick Jones Jr., Saddiq Bey, De’Andre Hunter. Names keep surfacing. None are close.
The question isn’t whether the Lakers have a list. It’s whether they have the will and the flexibility to act on it.
Lakers insider Jovan Buha has been blunt about how the internal debate is shaping up. He framed the decision around one simple test: can that player start against the league’s elite and “hold their own at that position doing what you need”?
By that standard, Buha said he doesn’t have the same level of confidence in options like De’Andre Hunter, Kyle Kuzma, or Grant Williams to carry that load over 24 to 28 minutes a night, compared with higher-end targets like P.J. Washington or Derrick Jones Jr.
His own preference is clear: “go get the P.J., go get the DJJ.” The problem? That’s not the direction the organization appears to be heading. With ownership in flux and what Buha described as a “certain T at the ownership level” looming over decisions, the sense is that the Lakers are more likely to stand pat than swing big.
The pressure finally told in his assessment: he expects the roster to be “mostly set” and doesn’t anticipate a move of real significance. At most, he floated the possibility of a minor shake-up — waiving a player, a two-for-one trade, or a salary dump on the margins.
For a team with Doncic in his prime, that’s a sobering forecast.
When the Trade Market Says No
On paper, the plan should be simple. Package assets, go get a starting-caliber forward, and push all the way into title contention. If you have a generational offensive engine, you don’t nickel-and-dime the supporting cast.
Reality bites harder.
The Lakers don’t have the kind of trade capital that scares rival general managers. Their best contracts for matching purposes are either too valuable on the court to move, or too damaged in the market to return anything meaningful. They’re also brushing up against the apron, which means every dollar in has to be balanced by a dollar out.
Jarred Vanderbilt is the clearest example of that bind. On paper, he’s exactly the type of player a contender would want in a rotation: defensive length, energy, versatility. In practice, his injury history and current deal have cratered his value. Around the league, he’s viewed as having minimal to no trade value. If the Lakers want to bring in someone on a larger contract, Vanderbilt is one of the obvious candidates to go — but there’s no line forming to take him.
So the front office sits in a familiar modern NBA purgatory: not enough assets to chase the best names, too constrained by the cap to take on real money, and too exposed at a key starting spot to feel comfortable.
The easy answer — the splashy trade, the marquee signing, the “Lakers get their man” headline — isn’t there.
The Only Real Option: Look Within
That leaves the path no star-driven franchise ever loves to hear: internal solutions.
From a pure basketball standpoint, it would make sense to push harder, to overpay a little, to force a deal that plugs the hole next to Doncic. When the ambition is to win now, you live with some pain later.
But the combination of ownership upheaval, financial constraints, and thin trade assets points the other way. The likeliest scenario, as Buha outlined, is that the Lakers roll into the season with this group, tweaking around the edges rather than reshaping the core.
If that’s how it plays out, the pressure shifts squarely onto the coaching staff and the existing rotation. Can they manufacture a functional frontcourt around Doncic with what they have? Can someone already on the roster grow into that starting power forward role, or at least fake it well enough against the league’s best?
The Lakers used to solve problems with star power and chequebooks. This year, with ownership in flux and the market cold, they may have to solve one of the most important ones with coaching, chemistry, and internal growth.
For a franchise built on certainty at the top and spectacle on the floor, that’s a very different kind of test.
