It’s been a very busy past several weeks for the Purple and Gold. After a lengthy coaching search that lasted almost two months, the Lakers officially completed the hiring of JJ Redick during the last week of June, making him the 29th head coach in franchise history. The move came as no surprise as Redick’s name was one of the first to circulate after the firing of Darvin Ham in early May. In typical Lakers fashion, the team continued to dominate the headlines during the NBA Draft, making noteworthy selections with both their first and second-round picks.
L.A. has remained a hot topic of conversation among the NBA media since the start of free agency; however, the mood surrounding the team has become more pessimistic due to their lack of activity. With most of the big free agents off the board, is it too late for the Lakers to make a big offseason splash?
The Lakers made their first splash on night one of the NBA Draft, selecting shooting guard Dalton Knecht from the University of Tennessee with the 17th overall pick. Knecht was one of the most highly touted players in the draft class after his stellar 2023-24 campaign with the Volunteers. Knecht led the SEC with 21.7 points per game and ended up winning the SEC Player of the Year Award. He was also a consensus first-team All-American and first-team All-SEC, alongside a plethora of other individual accolades.
Knecht’s elite-level season had caused his draft stock to skyrocket in the past several months, with many mock drafts, resulting in him being selected near the bottom of the top 10. On draft day, however, Knecht managed to fall to the middle of the first round and right into the Lakers’ lap at pick 17. The reason for Knecht’s slight tumble down the draft board was likely his age (23), seeing how he’s up to four or five years older than some of his fellow draftees.
Nevertheless, Knecht’s skill set perfectly fits the Lakers’ needs. L.A. seriously lacked athleticism and perimeter shooting from their guards this past season. Drafting a player like Knecht is a step in the right direction going forward.
On day two of the draft, the Lakers made what was unquestionably the most talked about selection in the draft when they picked Bronny James at pick number 55. It was a significant moment for the league, regardless of how Bronny’s career ends up playing out. LeBron and Bronny will become the first father-son duo to play in the NBA at the same time and only the fifth to do so across the four major North American sports leagues.
Bronny averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.1 assists at 19.4 minutes per game at USC. But as I already stated, the moment is more significant than from just a basketball perspective. The draft pick comes less than a year after Bronny collapsed due to cardiac arrest during a practice last July. It will be interesting to see how Bronny’s career unfolds from here.
Will the Lakers Bring in Anybody Via Free Agency and/or Trade?
As per usual, the Lakers were seemingly linked to a long list of names in a subsequent attempt to build their roster back into championship contention. However, almost all of the players whom they had been previously linked to have since signed with other teams. The cache of star players who L.A. has missed out on includes Dejounte Murray (who was traded to the Pelicans) and Donovan Mitchell (who elected to sign a contract extension with the Cavaliers).
Most of this offseason’s prominent free agents have also rejected the Lakers’ advances for other opportunities. Klay Thompson directly chose to sign with the Mavericks over the Lakers, believing Dallas to be currently more equipped to win a championship. Buddy Hield picked the Warriors over the Lakers for apparently the same reason. James Harden, another rumored target for the Lakers, decided to resign with the Clippers, although it’s unclear whether or not he was considering joining his team’s crosstown rivals.
More recently, 6-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan was dealt from the Bulls to the Kings in a sign-and-trade despite Vegas’ betting odds favoring the Lakers to acquire him. Missing out on DeRozan only adds to the Lakers’ free agency woes, which have come to have a negative connotation over their offseason after a promising draft.
Now that the majority of preferable options are off of the table, who else will the Lakers decide to pursue, if anybody? There are officially no more star players remaining in the current pool of free agents. That, of course, means that the Lakers’ last hope of obtaining another elite player will have to come via a trade. Regardless of their repeated strikeouts, the rumors remain circulating about potential trade targets who might still end up being moved. Atlanta’s Trae Young was one of the first names to be mentioned as a candidate for the Lakers to make a move; however, recent reports suggest that the current market for Young has cooled down.
Jerami Grant of the Trail Blazers has also featured prominently in Lakers trade rumors. The price of acquiring Grant’s services has been speculated to be rather significant. A recent article from Bleacher Report indicates that L.A. might have to part with both D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura in order to get the proposed deal over the finish line. Given how both Russell and Hachimura were important contributors for the Lakers last season, I would be very skeptical that they would green-light a move that would ship both of them away.
It would appear more favorable if L.A. were to make the deal work while only having to surrender draft capital or some combination of picks and less integral players than Russell and Hachimura. Either way, pretty much everyone agrees that some sort of move has to take place if the Lakers are to make any kind of championship push in 2024-25.
