The Lakers had a chance to shore up their defense with one of the league’s best perimeter stoppers, and they let it go.
Lu Dort is headed from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks in a three-team deal, and the price tag was only three second-round picks. That kind of return would have been within reach for Los Angeles, especially since the Lakers still have three second-round picks left. The catch, though, is that they would have needed to move Jared Vanderbilt and Dalton Knecht elsewhere to make the numbers work after their trade for Walker Kessler.
Even with that complication, passing on Dort looks like a brutal miss. For a team that could be a defensive turnstile next season, landing an elite defender for that little would have been a no-brainer.
Instead, the Lakers have spent the summer making moves that raise more questions than answers. They let Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart walk in free agency even though the two signed elsewhere for a combined $13 million.
They also sent out most of their remaining assets to bring in Kessler, who will now make an average of $32.5 million over the next four seasons. That puts him ninth among NBA centers in salary, despite not being a top-10 center.
The roster construction gets even stranger from there. Los Angeles signed Sandro Mamukelashvili to a four-year, $52 million deal to replace Rui Hachimura, even though he is a worse defender. And stacking more shaky defenders around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, who are both bad defenders, only makes the problem harder to ignore.
That is what makes the Dort situation sting so much. Oklahoma City’s cap situation meant the Thunder could not have asked for much, which should have opened the door for the Lakers to jump in and grab him for a handful of picks and salary filler. Instead, Atlanta got the deal done, and Los Angeles is left with one elite defensive piece in Kessler while still carrying a perimeter group that does not inspire much confidence.
If the Lakers had landed Dort to go with Kessler, the defensive outlook would look a lot different. As it stands, they watched another top target slip away.
In Other News...
Lakers May Be Watching Another Ideal Wing Slip Away
Peyton Watsons rise in Denver this past season has put him squarely on the radar of teams looking for a long, switchable wing, and the Lakers are among the clubs that have taken notice. The appeal is obvious from their side: Watson fits the kind of two-way mold that tends to matter in the West, and as a restricted free agent he is the sort of player who can quickly become expensive to pry loose.
The problem is the path to getting him looks murky. Los Angeles does not have the draft capital to satisfy Denvers asking price in a sign-and-trade, and its recent move for Walker Kessler has only tightened the margins on any bigger swing. With limited trade flexibility and other teams, including Atlanta, also circling, the Lakers may end up watching another ideal wing get out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have To Sacrifice More Than Expected For Bronny
LeBron James free agency decision is still hanging over the league, and the Warriors are reportedly one of the teams watching closely. If Golden State makes a real run at him, the ripple effect could reach the Lakers in a different way, because any move involving LeBron would naturally revive the conversation around Bronny James and whether Los Angeles would even consider dealing him.
The price on Bronny is still very much a moving target, but the Lakers are not expected to treat him like a throw-in if the situation gets serious. A trade built around a second-round pick and a roster-fitting player has been floated as the kind of framework that could get attention, though the asking price could shift if the whole thing becomes tied to LeBrons next stop. [Read more 🡒]