Lakers Seek Frontcourt Solutions Amid Tight Market
The Los Angeles Lakers built their summer around one big swing. Jonathan Kuminga chose Minnesota instead.
That decision didn’t just sting. It exposed a problem the front office can’t ignore: a frontcourt that looks thin, expensive and awkwardly boxed in by the cap.
As Khobi Price of the California Post laid out, the numbers are tight. 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 carrying 16 guaranteed contracts. The margin for creativity is almost gone, yet the roster still has two glaring needs: a power forward and a backup center.
One of those holes, at least, has to be plugged before training camp opens in a month.
Frontcourt hole, tight market
The center spot feels more urgent. Walker Kessler, brought in from the Utah Jazz in a seismic sign-and-trade in July, played only five games last season. Banking on him to shoulder 82 games’ worth of rim protection is a gamble the Lakers can’t afford.
The problem: the big man market is squeezed. Demand is high, quality supply is low, and the Lakers’ asset cupboard is almost bare.
Price detailed just how thin the options are. The Lakers control only their own 2033 second-round pick and a pair of second-rounders from the Washington Wizards in 2031 and 2032, acquired when they swapped Deandre Ayton for Jaden Hardy. The lone first-round pick they can cleanly move is in 2032. Beyond that, the trade chips are mostly players on deals that could effectively expire if team options for 2027-28 are declined — names like Hardy and Dalton Knecht.
So the Lakers are shopping in a very specific aisle: deep-rotation bigs on other teams, attainable for modest draft capital.
Two names have emerged.
Jericho Sims: run-and-jump solution?
Price reports that Milwaukee Bucks center Jericho Sims is on the Lakers’ radar. Dan Woike of The Athletic also noted last month that Sims is one of the bigs L.A. is monitoring.
Sims, 27, currently sits as the Bucks’ third center behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware. That status makes him a logical trade candidate, and a realistic target for a team with limited assets.
The appeal is obvious. Sims is a vertical threat, a classic rim-runner with serious bounce. Woike described him as the kind of “run-and-jump” big you want around Luka Doncic — big, explosive, and tailor-made for pick-and-rolls, lobs and second-chance plays. He dunks, he rebounds, he sprints the floor.
There are caveats. Scouts question his defense away from the basket, and he has never produced consistently across a full season. He’s not a polished offensive hub; he’s a specialist.
But specialists can be exactly what capped-out contenders need. With second-round picks as their most realistic currency, the Lakers could try to pry Sims loose without touching their distant first-rounder.
Jalen Smith: energy, shooting, and a price tag
The other option, Chicago Bulls big man Jalen Smith, brings a different profile — and a different set of complications.
Smith, 26, is undersized for a traditional center at 6-foot-8, but he plays with a relentless motor and has grown into a credible outside shooter. That blend of energy and spacing has earned him admirers inside the Lakers organization, according to Woike.
He would give L.A. a change-of-pace big: someone who can stretch the floor, run, and keep the tempo high with bench units. In a frontcourt that already features the size of Kessler, a smaller, more mobile big could offer valuable flexibility.
The sticking point is cost. Smith has one year and $9.5 million left on his deal. For a team pressed against the apron and already hard-capped, every dollar matters. On top of that, the previous Bulls regime rated him highly, which clouds how available he truly is on the trade market.
Acquiring Smith would likely require more than a token second-round pick, and the Lakers have to decide whether that kind of outlay for a backup big aligns with their long-term planning.
A narrow path for a win-now roster
This is where the Lakers find themselves: trapped between ambition and arithmetic.
They need frontcourt depth. They need a backup big who can survive playoff minutes. They need someone who fits next to Doncic and doesn’t blow up the cap sheet.
Sims offers verticality and athleticism at a likely lower acquisition cost. Smith brings shooting and energy but at a steeper financial and trade price. Neither is a star. Both, in this market, qualify as realistic and potentially important pieces.
The Lakers missed on Kuminga. They’re hard-capped, asset-light and still one big man short.
Now the question is simple, and unforgiving: can they find the right role player in a seller’s market before the season starts, or will a thin frontcourt define another year of Luka Doncic’s prime in Los Angeles?
