5 THINGS

There’s so much outside noise around Wiggins to the Lakers for 3 capable players (generally Rui, Gabe and Dalton) AND a 1st round pick that I felt it was time for a true comparison to the alleged primary pieces in the trade. Those players being Rui Hachimura and Andrew Wiggins. We’ll get into hard data and then get into more intangible aspects and expected roles.

Looking at the numbers:

In all honesty both players bring a very similar level of impact. Wiggins, who generally has a larger role on his teams, produces more raw ppg, albeit less efficiently. Rui, who plays his specific role very well for us, is the better three point marksman albeit on fewer attempts (Wiggins attempted 9.5 making 3.8 to Rui’s 4.8 attempts and 2.0 makes). Wiggins defensive rating is better, Rui’s offense is better (significantly, I would say) and more efficient across the board. Where Wiggins is superior is in getting to the free throw line (6.8 FTA/game to Rui’s 2.2, both shoot about 77% with Rui having a slight advantage there by .4%). So if they were making the same amount of money you could argue that it would be a decent lateral move.

They’re not making the same amount of money, though. Not even close:
Rui Hachimura: $18, 259, 259 (expires in the summer)
Andrew Wiggins: $28, 223, 215 (player option for $30, 169, 644 for 2025-26 season)

So when you factor that in, along with having to add two players that were mainstays in the rotation last season in Vincent and Knecht AND a first round pick, it starts to get confusing as to why so many fans are really into this idea. If you add just Gabe Vincent’s impact to our roster this deal gets worse for LA:

I’m not saying Gabe tore it up, it was definitely a down year for him, especially in the playoffs. The same can be said for Wiggins, though, who dropped off a cliff as his first playoff series as a member of the Heat. But just combination of Rui and Vincent is more than what Wiggins would potentially bring to the table. With the addition of Smart, Vincent is also our 3rd guard on a team short on guards (Reaves, Smart, Vincent…that’s it). So including him in a potential deal makes it even more of a priority that Smart plays in 70-80% of the games. Not very realistic given his career and injury history. You can pencil Marcus in for roughly 55-60 games, I’d say, as a best case scenario. That, subsequently, puts a ton of pressure on Reaves. Which may or may not be a good thing given his own limitations.

Furthermore, with Luka and LeBron on the team, you need some guards to play defense on the perimeter. It’s unrealistic, especially in the regular season, to say you’re playing 2 guards all year long. Yes, I know we have Bronny…c’mon man. Dude isn’t ready for a significant NBA role. That’s where Gabe comes in. Again, are there better guards out there? Sure, but this is who we have now. Trading 3 players for 1 given the current roster construction, might not be the smartest move we could make.

The main sticking point, for me, is the first round pick. We have 1 we can trade this season and, if we exercise discipline, 3 on draft day next summer when we could be looking to replace LeBron and/or Reaves, potentially. Not having that pick next summer means we’ll be settling further and further down the talent ladder. 3 picks and matching contracts/cap relief gets you in the door for almost any player. 2 picks…notsomuch. Not when guys like Bridges and Gobert netted 4 FRPs (albeit with protections). Make them unprotected, add a swap and a 2nd rounder and that’s something that a Denver or a Milwaukee can theoretically live with if their superstar demands to be sent to play with Luka.

Lastly, you have to wonder how invested in basketball Wiggins is these days. Nobody should begrudge someone who grows apart or away from something. It happens all the time. I think it’s safe to say, however, that there’s no way in Hell Golden State would have traded him for Jimmy Buckets if they thought his head was 100% in the game. For the past two, two and a half season, it clearly was not and that is supported by drop offs across the board in both efficiency and raw numbers.

I’d feel a lot differently if the deal was for Kleber, Vincent, Knecht and a FRP or no pick and Rui…although that’s my least favorite version. I mainly think that, given what his role on our team would be, it’s an overpay because Rui and he are slightly different versions of the same player. When you don’t have a ton of assets you can’t afford to be cavalier. Otherwise you end up in a Russel Westbrook type situation. One ball, too many dudes that need it.

In conclusion, Miami has all but said Wiggins is off the market because they want to see how this all works. The sweetener we have is the sweetener we got: one first round pick we can trade in 2030. Oh and our 2nd round pick in 2025, I believe. Other than that the cupboard is bare, my friends. If you look at what the other teams in contention are doing they’re definitely not burning picks for duplicative players already on the roster. Lakers need to be smart, not foolhardy.

The Lakers have been walking a tightrope for so long when it comes to developing talent and retaining/acquiring top-tier talent they could give as Ted Talk on it. Some seasons have seen us go too far towards the vet side (the AARP Lakers squad of 2021-22) and of course, post Kobe, we were too young (the Baby Lakers who eventually moved on or became AD who became Luka). So you’ll have to forgive me if I wasn’t floored when it was announced we signed Jake LaRavia. I didn’t know the guy, not sure I’ve seen him play more than a handful of times, and wouldn’t have put him on a list. So let’s get into why this signing might be the steal of the summer.

1. Jake’s strengths as a player. I compare Jake to a more athletic version of Luka Walton. The do-everything glue man that played a pivotal role in 2 banners hung on the wall at Crypto. Jake, like Luke, does a littler bit of everything but none of it at an elite level. He’s a below league average shooter at 42.9% (league average last season was 46%) and a slightly above-average three point shooter (37.1% and the league average was 36%). His career averages in points (6.9), rebounds (3.3) and assists (1.7) certainly don’t scream “future All Star!!!” but they do show us a player who fits into the cracks and can help smooth out the rough edges in a bench role. All of that should be considered against the backdrop of his minutes per game (18.9 for his career) and how that number has tracked up every season to a career high 20.9 in Memphis prior to being traded to the floundering Sacramento Kings last season where he got hurt after 19 games and missed the remainder of the season. It can be said that there aren’t many weaknesses to Jake’s game. He competes on D, is capable scoring the rock, and seems to fit in well with a largely undefined role.
2. Jake’s only weakness seems to be a lack of overall aggression and excellence at any one thing. This makes his role on the Lakers more of a riddle because, with Luka, LeBron and Reaves, you need to be a plus defender and a solid three point shooter. Jake trends towards the bottom half of league average in terms of his overall defensive rating but he averages 1.4 steals/game for his career. That’s something to build off of and work around, especially in a bench role because it’s pretty certain he’ll be sharing time with Smart, Vando and a starter or two. The Lakers bench likely won’t win many scoring accolades but if they can be a lockdown, gritty defensive unit that could go a long way to finding some success this season. Jake can contribute to that kind of identity well, I believe.
3. A building block for the future? The first thing that jumped out at me when we signed Jake was that we were able to land a 23 year old with upside for a measly $6 million/year for 2 years. While he hasn’t started many games and missed the end of last season with an injury, you can see the ingredients in Jake’s game to be a solid 3rd or 4th option as a starter or a key contributor off the bench. What’s great about this signing, in my opinion, is the low risk/high reward factor. 23 years old, has a valued skill set, solid size on a very team-friendly deal. No options means we’re getting a solid player on a bargain deal who could very easily become a solid rotation player in the coming season, if not beyond. With the 2 year deal we get a great window where we can ascertain how he fits in alongside the future core of Luka and Austin.
4. Role on the Lakers this season. With guys like Austin, Rui, and LeBron James being eligible to become unrestricted free agents next season, it’s not hard to see a starting small forward spot opening up after this upcoming season. Cracking the starting five would take something of a miracle, at least for the 2025-26 season, however. After that? It’s anyone’s guess. Clearly the first thing you need to do as a Laker is fit in alongside Luka and, to a much lesser degree, Reaves. With his career shooting percentage 42.9% (not great) and his 3 point shooting percentage being 37.1% (decent, approaching solid) Jake has some work to do inside the arc to be a no-brainer fit in the starting five. I expect Jake to be the 2nd or third player off the bench, depending on whether Smart is available to play and how Vando’s role is shaped in camp. If Jarred Vanderbilt has gotten his hops back after two foot surgeries and two summers of rehabbing injuries, that bodes well for him. If he can hit the corner three at a 35-38% clip and provide his excellent hustle and defense and timely offensive rebounding Jake’s role gets even murkier. If Vando looks like he did last season there is a door open for Jake to walk through into a larger role on a world famous franchise.
5. All in all, it feels like the Lakers scored another bargain in terms of a young player with some decent upside left who could fill a position in the event that we make a late season trade or see a player or two sign elsewhere for more money in the summer of 2026. Reaves is all but guaranteed to return after the upcoming season because the return on the dollar for his skillset is in the garbage this year. It’s not good business to trade a $30+ million dollar talent when he’s on a $13.9 million dollar deal. You’re getting less than 50% of his estimated value back in a trade, that’s a really crappy return on the investment. Rui Hachimura, on the other hand, could see his role on the Lakers priced above his value and have to look elsewhere next summer. Time will tell. I’m always hard on the GM, they don’t take enough flak for building bad rosters and getting their coaches fired as a result. But for the money and draft capital available to us, Rob did a solid job securing solid talent for very team-friendly price points.

From Above Article:

The Los Angeles Lakers had a terrible bench unit in 2024-25. From a pure production standpoint, the group has actually gotten worse in 2025-26. Luckily for JJ Redick, LeBron James and Austin Reaves offer the perfect solution to the second-unit woes in Los Angeles.

Last season, James was tasked with quarterbacking the bench players all by his lonesome. It led to a statistical outlier for the Lakers superstar which his critics would not shut up about.

LeBron’s season debut for Los Angeles suggested Redick may still be looking towards his aging superstar to help elevate some of the support pieces of the second unit. However, this time around, the Lakers head coach appeared tuned in to the fact that James needed more help.

Reaves spent a lot of time sharing the court with James during the latter’s first outing of the season. That should be the combo that is tasked with lifting up the bench when the time calls for those substitutions.

LeBron James and Austin Reaves are the duo Lakers need to rely on

If any of the Lakers’ three stars are going to be left alone with the backups, it will be Luka Doncic. The superstar point guard is playing at an MVP level and can certainly be asked to backpack an offense all by himself.

Otherwise, turning to James and Reaves as a duo is the right move. It may be a small sample size, but the pairing quickly showcased their chemistry in the strong 140-126 victory over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday.

James and Reaves shared the court for 26 minutes in the win, the second most of any two-man combination for the Lakers. The results were pretty good for Los Angeles, with the duo posting a positive net rating of 5.4 in their time together on the floor.

Having both available and mixing them in with second unit guys led to a solid 40-point performance from the bench. Granted, some of those came in garbage time when the Lakers had the game locked up.

Even so, the results were much better than what the Lakers showcased last season or earlier in this campaign.

In 2024-25, Los Angeles produced the second fewest points per game off the bench with a disappointing mark of 26.2. In 2025-26, they are dead last in the NBA with only 25.3 points per game from their second unit to this point.

Redick getting the opportunity to leave either Doncic or a combination of James and Reaves should help balance the Lakers out. The stars in Los Angeles already have the formula in place to lead a revival of their depth scoring.

Well, that was quite a season. Seismic trades, surprise playoff exits, devastating injuries and a new champion crowned. 9th different champ in the 12 years under Adam Silver (8 in 30 under Stern, I believe). Now comes the mania, the endless clickbait articles proclaiming this master trade can reshape the course of human history if you are willing to suspend all logic and disbelief! For my part, I expect a fairly quiet Laker summer. I’ll be content if we retain Dorian Finney-Smith and fill the center position with a suitable compliment to Luka’s playing style. Still, everyone will try and scream and yell about how anyone can replicate the Thunder’s blueprint for winning and I’m just here to tell you now that’s a giant, steaming pile of…

Dookie.

1. Replicating the Thunder’s path to success is impossible. It was forged in failure, tempered with the kind of patience rarely seen nowadays in pro sport, and was not borne of any single defining philosophy other than not wasting money. From the moment they chose cap space over James Harden and watched their first drafted core walk away one by one, or get traded for the current core, the Thunder have been a model in the one thing most sport analysts and fans seem to abhor: patience. You could argue that moss was growing on the Thunder after Russell Westbrook asked out but all that did was put the final nail in the coffin of the old Thunder that was built around Westbrook, Durant, Ibaka and Harden. Of that core, only Durant and Ibaka have won rings. Sam Presti, and the Thunder ownership, should be commended for the patience and logic they’ve deployed over the last 10 years to get to this exact moment. So, unless you have the organizational patience to wade through several losing seasons, not trade draft picks out of habit, and patiently build a complimentary and affordable roster, nobody will be replicating the success of the Thunder the way they did it any time soon.
2. Same goes for Indiana. I can’t count the number of fake trades I’ve seen here proclaiming that the Pacers have NO CHOICE WHATSOEVER but to trade Myles Turner for a couple of feeble draft picks and 3 broken down players. They ignored all of that noise, also chose to move on from the same superstar talent known as Paul George and, in doing so, paved the way for all of their current success. Trading Sabonis and George were the two catalysts for the Pacers to assemble the roster of talent that they have. They kept the defensive specialist who can, sometimes, hit a three and built around the electric Haliburton with long, gritty, defense first players who can also sometimes hit a three. The defense on both teams, came first and defined their team identity. And, yes, sometimes you need to make a three. Certainly not all the time, though.
3. The three point revolution stalls out in the NBA Finals. Again. Every season you hear it all regular season long…”the three point revolution is here to stay!”, “we need more three point shooting!”, “that guy only plays defense and can’t hit the three…” and so on. Yet every time the playoffs, and especially the Finals, roll around suddenly the midrange game and scoring in the paint return to dominance. I get it, and I even agree to a point: sometimes you need to make a three pointer. But to rely on it as the penultimate offensive option is as foolhardy as relying on backdoor cuts and lobs as your path to a banner. In the playoffs, those long misses lead to opponent fastbreak points and those run you right out of a series. The Lakers saw that first hand as we shot the 5th most three pointers/game at 36.4 our 36.6% accuracy was good for 14th…out of 16 playoff teams. The Timberwolves turned that futility into fastbreak points, often at the rim. The Lakers need to have a better balance on offense as we struggled to get to the rim in the playoffs when the lob game stalled out and our paint drivers were hobbled. The Thunder do not rely on the three ball, when it falls for them they generally blow you out. But they don’t need it to fall, they’re dominant defensively and have several guys who can attack the rim. Sometimes they make a three. More often and not, they pass it up for a better shot.
4. Fewer max contracts. This one is why the Lakers can never be expected to follow the blueprint of the Thunder, they do it The Lakers Way which is big, splashy…and expensive. OKC has zero players on max contracts after Shai who signed his back in 2022-23 when he had fewer than 6 years of NBA experience under his belt, hence the $35 mil (which looks like an absolute bargain and he will definitely make a ton more on his net extension). That alone allowed OKC to retain key drafted players or sign elite role players like Alex Caruso and Isiah Hartenstein. Holmgren is a particularly cheap and effective player (also soon to be due for an extension) who came even cheaper due to past injuries and slow start to his NBA career. The Lakers aren’t ever going to follow this path because they never draft young players if they can avoid it in any way. They trade for their stars, they’re homegrown a lot more rarely. This means we’re often shipping out our own elite role-players, or letting them walk for nothing and having to reform a team every few seasons around one or two massive contracts. In the modern NBA that’s a tight path to navigate smoothly. Rob hasn’t really proved he’s capable of it as he dismantled the team he basically inherited from Magic that won a banner.
5. Luck. Especially in the healthy players department. We just saw how one injury can completely alter a series (but go ahead and tell that to the Bad Boy Pistons who certainly didn’t put an asterisk next to their win against us when our guys all had bad hamstring pulls, a title is a title). The Lakers haven’t had the best luck but they also haven’t maxed out the resources or capabilities of a truly modern training staff and so, with the new owner, perhaps that could start to tilt back in our favor sooner than later. A healthy team is a good team and OKC had good health at the right time and it showed. they also hustled the hardest, played with the most grit, and adapted better than anyone else. So, while luck is certainly apart of it, so, too is toughness and tenacity.
   
   In short I don’t expect the Lakers to be able to replicate anything the Thunder have done and anyone who says otherwise is really just full of it. The Lakers need to do it their way, within the confines of the current CBA. They need to retain their current key contributors and improve around the margins. A lot of money was tied up in players that didn’t really play in the playoffs (Kleber) or have much of an impact (Vincent, Vando, Knecht, Hayes). Some of the guys who were ineffectual didn’t get much run and some didn’t do much with what they got. That’s something for the staff to mull over and figure out. A full training camp with Luka and LeBron and some chemistry could go a long way. Internal improvement from guys like Knecht and Hayes on defense or Vando and Goodwin on offense could go a long way to closing some of the roster gaps we currently have. Regardless, whatever moves we make they won’t be seismic like the Luka trade unless we trade Luka or LeBron which we all know ain’t happening. Getting Luka was our “all in” move.