Lakers to delay major trades until season starts https://t.co/2zHibWasM7 via @TalkBasket— LakerTom (@LakerTom) August 11, 2025
Lakers to delay major trades until season starts
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August 11, 2025 3 Comments
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From the above article:
The Los Angeles Lakers aren’t expected to make any blockbuster moves before the season gets rolling, according to Sean Deveney’s report for Athlon Sports.
League sources tell Deveney the front office is taking a deliberate, wait-and-see approach rather than aggressively shopping key rotation pieces.
Opportunities to move players like Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt reportedly surfaced, but the team declined to include them in trade packages.
A Western Conference executive told Deveney the Lakers “have not been attacking the trade market by any stretch of the imagination.”
That restraint reflects a broader league trend: many teams are pausing major roster overhauls until they see how new lineups perform in October.
Los Angeles appears content to evaluate chemistry, health and role fit once training camp and early regular-season games reveal real usage patterns.
The Lakers’ core — LeBron James and Luka Doncic-adjacent depth and a mix of veteran shooters and defenders — gives management confidence to sit pat for now.
Sources say management values continuity and prefers to preserve flexibility for clearer needs that may arise once the season is underway.
Expectations around potential midseason moves remain open, not closed, with front offices watching for injuries, buy-low chances and trade-deadline bargains.
Deveney’s reporting suggests the Lakers would entertain offers once clearer evidence emerges about which areas truly require upgrading.
Coach JJ Redick and his staff will use preseason and early regular-season minutes to test rotations and assess players such as Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt and young depth pieces.
Those internal evaluations will likely guide any future trade calculus more than offseason speculation or one-off offers.
I think this is a smart move. The fact that they declined to trade Gabe and Vando tells me that the offers were not all that great. I think it’s wise to wait to see what you are going to really need before making any major moves. With good play it can increase a players trade value later in the season.
Mirrors my thinking and opinionating. For several reasons beyond the one’s outlined here but topping the list is continuity and restoration of health to key members.
Honestly, the only move I’m still questioning is the jettisoning of Goodwin for Smart. While I’m mildly (very, very mildly) hopeful Smart can regain some of that Celtic mojo, age and past injuries can be a lot of a player of his age to overcome. Sure, there are a handful of players that are playing well into their mid and even late 30’s. It’s not the norm, though. Most PGs see a decline in their game start around 30 and Smart, who has never been a knockdown shooter, has to be excellent on defense every night to justify this and he would make me happy if he shot as well as Goodwin did last season.
Other than that, for the price, I’m fine with Ayton and hopeful he can re-ignite the inner fire. If not, no biggie, he’s gone after the season and we’re back where we were this summer: no center to speak of. Hayes can fill in just fine, we saw he and Luka play well off one another last season until the playoffs when teams gear up more to stop specific actions. It’s a real ‘little risk, potentially high reward’ situation.
With so few draft assets to grease trade wheels (I don’t count swaps as true assets, especially the way the Lakers are currently built) there didn’t seem to be a practical path forward to acquire major league talent. When you get down into the nuts and bolts of it and move beyond the idea that “trades magically fix everything!” the guys we have are about as good as the guys we see posted about here every day.
What is often overlooked is chemistry. LeBron has it with Reaves, Rui, Vincent and Vando. Luka will be able to vibe with those guys for a few months (plus camp and maybe a mini pre-camp…camp). That bodes well for intangibles that the ESPN Trade Machine cannot account for.