Adam Silver and his advisors would “seriously consider” abolishing the rookie draft and turning rookies in free agents if it is the only way to stop tanking, per @joevardon (https://t.co/4heoXdM0NL) pic.twitter.com/qXNP8KfXXp— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) February 15, 2026

The NBA Trade Deadline has now passed and, other than waiving a player to add a last minute surprise buyout candidate, the Lakers now have their complete 15-player roster for the regular season stretch run and playoffs.

Despite delaying their roster makeover until next summer when they’ll have 3 tradable first round picks and $60 million in cap space, the Lakers still need to finish this season strong to save Pelinka’s and Redick’s jobs. Right now, the Lakers are 33–21, #5 seed in the West, and #9 team in the league. To survive this gap year, the Lakers will need to revamp their starting and bench lineups to better optimize and balance their talent.

Pelinka and Redick face difficult situations as they were not hired by Mark Walter and only have the rest of the season and the playoffs to show they deserve to still be in charge for next summer’s extreme roster makeover.
Since landing Luka, Pelinka has wasted 2 trade deadlines and 1 offseason without adding an established starter. Meanwhile, Redick has done a good job in the regular season but needs to prove he can win in the playoffs.

The only solution to salvage this situation is to replace the current no-defense Big Three starting lineup that has a negative net rating and the current inefficient no-offense bench that ranks #30 in points per game.
Instead of a star-studded starting lineup and weak bench, the Lakers must listen to the data, which says they can build two elite balanced data-driven 5-man lineups, one around Luka and Austin and a second around LeBron.

Let’s review the Lakers’ 15-man roster for regular season stretch run and playoffs and see what the numbers say are the team’s best options to build an elite competitive starting lineup and rotation to salvage this gap year.

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WHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?

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Despite expectations they would be an offensive juggernaut, the numbers say the Lakers’ Big Three of Doncic, Reaves, and James has been a major disappointment, recording a -9.6 net rating in 10 games and 152 minutes.

The harsh reality is starting Luka, Austin, and LeBron together is not a winning strategy. Playing three offense-first stars who need the ball in their hands to excel is both redundant and doomed to be horrible defensively.
The above chart not only says LeBron is not a good fit playing next to Luka and Austin but also that he and Luka or he and Austin can’t win the minutes they’re on the court together as a duo. Lakers are losing LeBron minutes.

The Lakers brain trust has a major decision to make during the All-Star break. Do they really write this year off as a gap year and keep starting the Big Three? Or do they sell LeBron that coming off the bench is the answer.
Nobody’s saying LeBron’s not good enough to start or that he would not play the same minutes or close games. We’re talking about putting him on the court in winning lineups where he’s the first rather than third option.

The numbers say the Lakers should create two new star-driven lineups, one featuring Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves to get the team off to a good start and one featuring LeBron James to dominate the middle and end of games.
Luka and Austin don’t need a third star. They need a bouncy center for vertical space and lethal shooter for horizontal space. LeBron doesn’t need a second star. When Luka and Austin rest, give him the ball, let him work.

The numbers say it’s time for the Lakers to move on from their offense-first Big Three starting lineup and weak bench and switch to a dynamic Doncic and Reaves starting lineup and elite starter-quality James backup lineup.

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WHO SHOULD START

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Building a new starting lineup around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves should be easy as the duo has an offensive rating of 117.3, defensive rating of 110.6, and net rating of +6.7 in 19 games and 466 minutes together.

Since the Lakers will start Luka Doncic at point guard and Austin Reaves at shooting guard, they need to add a starting small forward, power forward, and center with good positional size, shooting, rebounding, and defense.
Strategically, the Lakers should view the remaining 28 games in the season as their ramp up for the playoffs and only invest playing time in players whom they believe can finish the season strong and shine in the playoffs.

The Lakers best option as a two-way 3&D starting small forward is Jake LaRavia. At 6′ 7″ with a 6′ 10″ wingspan, Jake’s shown promise as a potential future star role player with positional size and elite defensive versatility.
To better match up against bigger lineups, the Lakers should opt for a two-bigs lineup rather than a traditional power forward and center. They need a pair of versatile bigs who can stretch the floor vertically and horizontally.

With LeBron James moving to the bench, this is the perfect time to start Jaxson Hayes and move Deandre Ayton to the bench to play with LeBron. Hayes’ play has earned a level of trust at center that Ayton’s simply has not.
The ideal second big to play next to Jaxson Hayes should be Maxi Kleber, who’s healthy and thriving. Kleber and Hayes played 47 minutes in 9 games with a 114.7 offensive rating, 105.3 defensive rating, and +9.4 net rating.

The Lakers should revamp their starting lineup for more positional size, 3-point shooting, and team defense. The new Lakers’ starters should be Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Jake LaRavia, Maxi Kleber, and Jaxson Hayes.

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WHO SHOULD COME OFF BENCH?

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The numbers say LeBron James’ best 5-man lineup this season was playing with Smart, Vanderbilt, Ayton, and Hachimura, where they posted an elite 124.3 offensive rating, 102.6 defensive rating, and +21.7 net rating.

While they only played 19 minutes in 7 games, this 5-man lineup or a variation with Kennard replacing Vanderbilt should become the ultimate lineup target as the Lakers organically sub out starters for bench players.
While they won’t be using hockey substitutions, the Lakers want opposing teams to spend 90% of the game facing their new Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves led starting lineup or their new LeBron James led bench lineup.

During the final 28 games, the Lakers’ top priority is to develop the kind of chemistry and continuity they will need to salvage and survive the long regular season and then rally and win their way to the conference finals.
The Lakers need both the Luka and Austin starting lineup as well as the LeBron led bench lineup together to excel and play most of the 48 minutes of playing time in the 28 games remaining in the 2025–26 NBA Season.

Right now, the Lakers rank #28 in the league in bench scoring at 115.9 ppg. One of the things that makes this new bench lineup so dangerous is all of the bench players except Kennard have experience playing with LeBron.
The James fivesome will likely be so good that they may steal minutes from the Luka and Austin fivesome. LeBron may ultimately play fewer minutes because of not starting but his impact on closing wins could be greater.

The Lakers should revamp their bench lineup for more size, shooting, and defense. The Lakers’ new bench lineup should include Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James, and Deandre Ayton.

As the vapid and useless All Star weekend passes us by I take this time to look at the state of the team.

(1) The offense, in general, isn’t the problem. Sure, we’re not a top 5 offense but we’re a top ten-ish offense. Seeing how we’ve been shuffling line ups, players being out and 3/5’s of the current starting 5 weren’t on the team last season that’s not bad. The major issues I’d like us to cleanup are turnovers and focusing more on quality shots, too often it seems like we try for home run passes when a simple swing pass will do or jacking up early shots.

(2) The defense is awful. Sure, injuries, a common and well-trod excuse. but one of our best defenders, Jarred Vanderbilt was benched for a stretch and we stuck with the same, incredibly ineffective, switch everything scheme for the first few months of the season. Our zone generally performs better and I’m not sure we ever play in anything close to a man-to-man. We switched small onto big with Embiid and Wemby, for example, for the entire game when we weren’t in a zone. That’s absurd. This one is on the coaches more than anyone else.

(3) Injuries. We got ‘em. So does every team. We’re not even in the top ten of teams that have players due to injury. Whereas the Thunder are. Last I looked, they were leading the west. So, sure, injuries have certainly played a factor in our overall team performance. The extent of that comes down to how much grit and heart the team has.

(4) Speaking of which, the game against the Spurs showed us all the quality of that heart and grit. Outside of Vando and Kleber it looked like everyone else showed up to lose. Nobody hit Wemby, nobody bumped Wemby, nobody tried at all in D except those 2. One would imagine that, for a lot of the guys who played in that game, that having the opportunity to showcase a skill set beyond the one perceived would be welcome. Clearly not with this team.

(5) Don’t worry, Jamie, the summer signings will fix everything. Not sure I buy into that, not while Rob is in charge. We need young impact players, ideally in rookie deals. Our current rookie has barely played because he has a history of knee injuries since before he was drafted. Before that the 1st round rookie we drafted is now completely out of the NBA with no team even offering him a two way deal and we broke the other one. We let our other, cheap impact player, Jordan Goodwin, go so we could sign an older version of the same thing. Feels like we could have kept Goodwin and signed Smart if we had a better GM who maybe could have moved Gabe over the summer instead of another mostly wasted year of him being ineffective.

Clearly I have issues with both the composition and direction of the team. Maybe some of you feel differently, maybe not. I see us maybe making it to the 2nd round and bowing out then in the playoffs. That won’t cut it for anyone.