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The Lakers as a franchise are famous for their great pairs of superstars: West and Baylor, Magic and Kareem, Kobe and Shaq, LeBron and Luka. With LeBron’s Lakers’ era ending soon, could Luka and Giannis be next?

In the past, the Lakers’ ownership and front office would have prioritized holding onto to all of their draft capital and keeping their options open in case opportunity knocked and they had a chance to trade for Giannis. Something changed over the last month as the Lakers are suddenly going all-in to win a championship this season and are even willing to trade draft capital for players who would elevate them to legitimate title contenders.

The only reasonable explanation for the Lakers’ sudden shift in direction is they didn’t see a realistic path for acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo and were convinced that the new CBA now favored the ‘One Superstar’ model.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder showed the world why Luka and the Lakers should surround their young superstar point guard with young, athletic players who can shoot and defend instead of a second superstar.

Whether long-term or temporary, the Thunder created a new blueprint for winning a championship by surrounding their young superstar point guard with a deep, young, long, athletic rotation of legitimate two-way players.
The parallels between SGA and OKC and Luka and LA are eerily similar. The Lakers should trade their young talent and draft capital right now to transform their rotation from a one-way liability to a two-way juggernaut.

What Luka and the Lakers need to be a championship contender is not Giannis Antetokounmpo or a second $60 million superstar but three $20 million or four $15 million or six $10 million per year elite role players.