Lakers Face Frontcourt Challenges After Kuminga Signing Miss

September has arrived, and the Los Angeles Lakers still look unfinished.

The front office swung and missed on Jonathan Kuminga, watched him walk to the Minnesota Timberwolves on a two-year deal, and now stares at a frontcourt depth chart that feels one piece light. In a Western Conference that punishes hesitation, that’s a dangerous place to be.

Lakers reporter Khobi Price laid out the problem bluntly in the California Post. The failed Kuminga pursuit “has left them with a hole in the frontcourt,” he wrote, and the financial picture only tightens the vise. With their payroll sitting $8.1 million below the NBA’s $209 million first-apron threshold, the Lakers are hard-capped for the 2026-27 season. Sixteen players already hold guaranteed contracts. The flexibility? Almost gone.

This is not a team flush with options.

Free agency offers slim pickings. The few remaining names on the market don’t exactly scream difference-maker, and even the intriguing ones come with question marks. Trades are no easier. Years of pushing chips in have left the asset cupboard thin, the margin for error even thinner.

So where do they turn?

Betting on the Kids

When you can’t buy help, you have to grow it.

Inside the building, the expectation is clear: if another move doesn’t materialize before camp, the Lakers will lean hard into internal development. They don’t have a stable full of blue-chip prospects, but they do have one name that keeps coming up when people talk about upside on the wing.

Adou Thiero.

At 22, the second-year forward suddenly finds a spotlight he didn’t quite expect. Kuminga’s decision didn’t just hurt the Lakers’ plans; it cleared a path.

From a pure physical standpoint, the comparison between the two is obvious. Price notes that Thiero, at 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds, mirrors Kuminga’s frame (6-foot-7, 225 pounds). Both bring explosive athleticism, both cover ground with ease, both can play above the rim. That’s the good news.

The gap, for now, is skill. Kuminga is “far ahead of Thiero when it comes to offensive skill and production,” Price wrote. That’s not a slight; it’s a reality check. Thiero isn’t being groomed as a savior. He’s being asked to become a viable rotation piece.

And without Kuminga in the picture, there’s finally room for that.

Price sees “a pathway for Thiero to be on the fringes of the rotation.” On a veteran-heavy roster, fringes matter. Those are the minutes that swing regular-season workloads, that buy stars rest, that keep a team from breaking down in March.

Players with Thiero’s profile often thrive next to high-usage creators — the kind who bend defenses and turn vertical threats into easy points. It’s the same template that has worked for athletic wings around Luka Doncic and other heliocentric stars: sprint the floor, cut hard, screen, dive, finish. Do the dirty work, cash the easy ones.

Thiero isn’t close to starting-caliber yet. The Lakers know that. But his energy, his bounce, his willingness to attack the rim have already caught the eye of a fan base desperate for fresh legs and fresh ideas on the wing. On a roster that can look methodical at times, he offers chaos — the good kind.

Glimpses of What Could Be

This isn’t blind optimism. There were signs late last season that Thiero might be more than just a long-term project.

His year wasn’t smooth. Lower-body injuries sidelined him for stretches, and he spent most of the 2025-26 campaign in the G League, grinding through reps away from the bright lights. That’s often where careers stall.

His did not.

By the end of the season, Thiero had pushed his way into consistent playoff minutes, a notable shift for a young player on a team with postseason expectations. Price highlighted that closing stretch as a key marker in his development. The coaching staff trusted him enough to put him on the floor when possessions tightened and mistakes were magnified.

Then came July.

In summer league runs in San Francisco and Las Vegas, Thiero put together the kind of highlight reel that makes coaches curious and fans impatient. Putback dunks. Lob finishes. Chases on the glass. Defensive stands against bigger forwards. He looked, as Price put it, “still pretty raw and has plenty of development ahead of him,” but the outlines of a useful role were there.

The Lakers don’t need him to morph into a star. They need a bigger wing who can be a lob threat, a strong rebounder, and hold his own defensively against size. Those were the exact responsibilities they had earmarked for Kuminga. Thiero, at least in profile, is equipped to shoulder some of that load.

And that’s where this all circles back.

The missed signing didn’t just leave a hole. It accelerated a timeline. Instead of easing Thiero in behind a more polished young forward, the Lakers may have to find out quickly just how ready he is.

Camp will answer some of those questions. The regular season will answer the rest.

For a franchise boxed in by the cap and short on assets, the equation is simple: if the front office can’t import the next wave, it has to trust the one already in the building. The Lakers wanted Jonathan Kuminga.

They might have to live with what Adou Thiero becomes instead.