If the Lakers are searching for the perfect deals this summer, could it result in them kicking the can down the road for next season?
If there’s one thing President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka has shown an abundance of during his time with the Lakers, it’s patience. At times, perhaps too much.
His patience in trading Russell Westbrook led to him getting a fantastic return, all things considered, but also cost the Lakers multiple seasons of the LeBron James and Anthony Davis era. Pelinka has shown that, just because everyone assumes a deal needs to be done, he won’t rush into what he feels is a bad trade.
Which brings us to this summer. The Lakers badly need to acquire a center. But if the market is not right, will Pelinka hold his cards?
As part of a series of articles looking at different ways the summer could play out. After looking at the best-case scenario and then the worst-case scenario, we now finish by looking at what happens if the Lakers basically do nothing. With a cleaner cap sheet in the summer of 2026, would Pelinka dare wait to make moves?
Framing their draft decision on kicking the can down the road is hard to do because the Lakers aren’t going to go into the summer looking to not make a move. However, if looking at it as more of a long-term play, then using the draft pick on another project-type player as they did with Bronny James would be the move.
The Lakers need to maximize their roster spots more this season. If they plan on having a veteran voice like Markieff Morris on the roster, then they can’t also have multiple players who may not be able to contribute meaningful minutes.
With their internal free agents, the Lakers would likely re-sign multiple players on short-term deals. Giving Jaxson Hayes another one-year minimum deal to be the starting center and giving Dorian Finney-Smith a big one-year deal with a team option for next season, for example, would be kicking the can down the road.
There’s a blueprint, in general, for what this looks like and it’s what the Lakers did with Russ in which their moves were largely just bringing in players on veteran’s minimums contracts.
This is already a depressing look at the offseason and we aren’t even to what would be the worst part yet.
It’s actually pretty easy to see how things go awry when looking for a center. With few free agent options, the ones that exist could quickly land with other teams.
Someone like Clint Capela might find a different situation with a guaranteed starting spot, for example, more appealing and prefer not to wait for the Lakers. That would immediately more pressure on the Lakers to find a trade partner.
And on the trade market, teams are already going to know that the Lakers are in need of a center, too.
In one sense, it could work in their favor as they could leverage teams against one another to lower the trade offer. However, if teams hold firm, it makes it much more difficult to find a deal.
Which then puts Pelinka in a position where he has to decide whether he wants to overpay for a center or wait. Given his history, it’s fair to probably assume he’ll wait.
And then, just like that, the Lakers spend the summer with rumors surrounding them and no deal really coming close. At Media Day, he speaks of the benefit of having multiple expiring contracts to use and the price of centers going down the longer they wait.
If the Lakers don’t get a center, the rest of the offseason feels largely irrelevant. Having Hayes, maybe a potential veteran’s minimum guy who is equally flawed and some two-way options means the Lakers will not be a serious team.
And it’s frustrating how plausible this feels.
Ultimately, as much as this feels like a possibility, it’s one still not a path that I think the Lakers take. As much patience as Pelinka showed when dealing Westbrook, he was dealing from a position of weakness.
This time, the Lakers have assets to make a deal. They have picks, young players and expiring contracts. Teams will want what they have to offer.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.