The Lakers may have filled the roster and burned through most of their cap flexibility, but Rob Pelinka still isn’t acting like the summer is over.
According to ESPN’s Anthony Slater, Los Angeles remains locked in on Jonathan Kuminga and has not backed off its pursuit even after adding two wings in Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle. Slater said Thursday on ESPN’s “NBA Today” that the Lakers are still pushing for another move and that Pelinka has stayed in contact.
“I can tell you that they keep calling Jonathan Kuminga,” Slater said Thursday on ESPN’s “NBA Today.”
That persistence has become the story. The Lakers have already spent heavily, filled out the roster and made moves that would normally signal a front office shifting its attention elsewhere. Instead, they’ve kept working the same lane, with Pelinka continuing to call Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, and trying to sell the forward on a bigger role.
The pitch has been consistent: minutes on the wing, a starting opportunity and a place in a roster being built around Luka Doncic. Multiple people inside the organization, players included, have also reached out to recruit Kuminga directly.
Kuminga, though, has held his ground. He has already passed on a Lakers offer in the range of two years and $20 million, and the gap between interest and money is still the obstacle.
Los Angeles wants him. Kuminga wants more.
The timeline helps explain why this chase has lasted so long. After the Atlanta Hawks declined Kuminga’s $24.3 million team option on June 29, he met virtually the next day with Pelinka and head coach JJ Redick. The Lakers then moved quickly in free agency, committing nearly all of their remaining financial flexibility to Walker Kessler, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton before the first week was done.
Normally, that would have been the end of the Kuminga pursuit. Instead, the Lakers kept going and later added Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle on modest one-year deals, two players who fill the same general wing territory Kuminga would occupy. Even with those signings, Pelinka has stayed on the phone.
The biggest variable now is LeBron James. Slater said James’ free agency decision will shape what kind of money is left for Kuminga elsewhere, and that makes the whole market wait on one domino.
Cleveland is the other team tied to Kuminga with real interest, and that connection has a personal angle: Kuminga is comfortable with Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, who was with him as a Golden State assistant during his first three NBA seasons. But Cleveland’s front office is also focused on recruiting James, which has left the Lakers as the most aggressive team in the Kuminga chase.
If James chooses Cleveland, the Cavaliers’ attention and flexibility get spent there, and the Lakers’ path becomes clearer. If James goes somewhere else, Cleveland can turn back toward Kuminga with real intent, giving his camp the stronger offer it has been waiting for.
That’s why Pelinka’s approach has been patience rather than pressure. The Lakers are hard-capped at the first apron because of the Kessler sign-and-trade, and with the roster full, they can only offer minimum-level money unless salary goes out first. A sign-and-trade remains the cleanest route, but it would require Atlanta to help facilitate a deal and get compensated for doing it.
The Lakers’ possible outgoing pieces start with Jarred Vanderbilt, Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy. Any package built around them would likely need extra value from a limited stash that includes three second-round picks and a 2032 first-round pick swap.
Atlanta wants the swap. Los Angeles has been reluctant to include it.
There is still a less likely path in which Kuminga returns to Atlanta on a friendlier structure than the option that was declined, though that is not being actively discussed. The Sacramento Kings have also checked in, but they do not have the financial room to do much more than ask.
For now, the message from Los Angeles is simple: the Lakers are not done. They’ve already built most of the roster, but they still see the wing spot as the opening they want to attack, and they’ve kept calling through everything that should have ended the conversation.
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