Los Angeles Lakers Seek Frontcourt Depth After Kuminga Miss
The Los Angeles Lakers built their summer around one big swing. Jonathan Kuminga chose Minnesota instead.
That decision, a win for a Western Conference rival, leaves the Lakers staring at a frontcourt gap and a tightening cap sheet. As Khobi Price of the California Post detailed, the miss on Kuminga has real consequences: a hole at power forward, no clear backup center, and almost no financial wiggle room.
They’re $8.1 million shy of the NBA’s $209 million first-apron threshold and already hard-capped for 2026-27. Sixteen players are on guaranteed deals. Training camp is a month away. The needs are obvious. The paths to fix them are not.
A Thin Market, a Thinner Asset Chest
The Lakers’ depth chart screams for size. They need a power forward. They need a backup five. Given the circumstances, the second need might be more urgent.
Walker Kessler, acquired from the Utah Jazz in a seismic July sign-and-trade to anchor the middle, played just five games last season. Banking on his health without a credible insurance policy behind him would be reckless. The front office knows it.
The problem: the big man market is brutal.
Price describes a landscape where demand for quality centers is high, supply is low, and the Lakers are shopping with a nearly empty wallet. Their tradable draft capital is sparse: their own 2033 second-round pick, a pair of second-rounders from the Wizards in 2031 and 2032 (acquired in the Deandre Ayton–for–Jaden Hardy swap), and a single first-round pick they can outright move in 2032. Beyond that, the “assets” are mostly players on deals that could become expiring if 2027-28 team options are declined, such as Hardy and Dalton Knecht.
This is not a package that lands a star. It barely gets you into the conversation for another team’s third big.
So the Lakers have adjusted their sights. They’re not hunting starters. They’re targeting the back of other teams’ rotations.
Two Names, One Narrow Lane
Within that tight lane, two names have emerged.
Price reports that if the Lakers decide to pursue a trade for frontcourt depth, Milwaukee Bucks center Jericho Sims and Chicago Bulls big man Jalen Smith are on their radar. Both were also flagged last month by The Athletic’s Dan Woike as players the Lakers are monitoring.
Sims, 27, sits third on the Bucks’ depth chart behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware. That status alone makes him interesting for a team like Los Angeles. He’s not a centerpiece in Milwaukee. He might be gettable.
His appeal is straightforward. Sims is a classic run-and-jump big, the kind of vertical athlete who thrives in space and above the rim. Woike framed him as the archetype you’d want around Luka Doncic: big, explosive, a lob threat, a rebounder. The defensive scouting report is mixed — concerns about his work away from the basket and a lack of consistent production — but for a team starved for size and energy, those are acceptable risks at the right price.
The Lakers could realistically use second-round picks to try to pry him loose. That’s the level they’re shopping at now: not headline moves, but targeted swings on role players who can survive playoff minutes next to stars.
Smith, 26, offers a different profile. He’s smaller for a big at 6-foot-8, but he plays with a relentless motor and has turned himself into a credible outside shooter. That combination — effort, floor spacing, and versatility — has earned him admirers inside the Lakers organization, according to Woike.
The complication is cost and context. Smith is on an expiring one-year, $9.5 million deal, a significant number for a team already squeezed by the apron. He’s also undersized for a traditional center role, which matters for a roster that already leans heavily on skill and shooting at the expense of sheer bulk. On top of that, the previous Bulls regime rated him highly, muddying the picture on how available he truly is.
Still, these are the types of bets the Lakers are now forced to consider: imperfect, situational, but potentially impactful.
A Roster on the Edge
Strip away the cap jargon and draft-pick math, and the picture is simple. The Lakers are built to win now, yet they’re one injury or one foul-plagued night from being exposed up front.
Kessler is the linchpin. Behind him, there’s a void that can’t be filled by sliding a wing up a position or asking a small-ball five to survive against bigger lineups over 82 games and into the postseason. The West is too big, too bruising, and too relentless for that.
So the front office scans the league for cracks: a third center in Milwaukee, an undersized big in Chicago, any team with more size than minutes to offer. The Lakers don’t have the assets to bully their way into a deal. They’ll have to thread it — find a partner who values second-round picks, expiring flexibility, or a young flyer just enough to move a depth piece.
They missed on Kuminga. That chapter is closed.
What comes next is less glamorous but just as decisive: can they turn limited assets into one reliable big body who keeps their season from tilting the wrong way?
