The Los Angeles Lakers' season just came to an end a few days ago, but in the NBA, getting eliminated from the playoffs is less "goodbye" and more "see you later." The NBA calendar and the rumor mill never stop, so although there's no more basketball for Lakers fans to enjoy, that only means that the time for wild speculation is at hand.
The draft and free agency will soon be approaching, and as Lakers fans saw first-hand this year, newly promoted president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka isn't afraid to shake up his roster with an earth-shattering trade.
The way this season ended made it clear that the Lakers are far from a finished product. The defense, which went through a shockingly excellent stretch in the middle of the season, fell off severely when it was locked in a cage with Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle. The Lakers' lack of size and rebounding came back to bite them, as Rudy Gobert used and abused them for 27 points and 24 rebounds while nearly single-handedly eliminating them in Game 5. How do you say "field day" in French?
JJ Redick admitted afterward that the Timberwolves simply had a better team, and he was right. Redick also lost the battle of wits with Chris Finch, but in fairness to the first-year coach, he had fewer tools at his disposal.
Pelinka will now have to make some moves to ensure that a five-game, first-round defeat is something that doesn't happen again. Luka Dončić is under contract for at least next year and will hopefully sign a long-term extension this summer. LeBron James needs to officially decide if he's going to exercise his player option or retire, but let's be honest, he's not ready to hang them up just yet.
The presence of Luka and LeBron would lead most reasonable basketball fans to expect that Pelinka will have to work around the margins to improve the team. A true center is a must, as is a better bench, especially after Redick so thoroughly rejected his reserves in the Timberwolves series.
Working around the margins makes sense for most teams, but it's not exactly the Laker way. This is a franchise whose motto has always been "go big or go home," and with one of the best players in the world potentially available this summer, it stands to reason that Pelinka will do what he can to make a run at him.
Giannis Antetokounmpo may have played his last game for the Milwaukee Bucks
The biggest fish in the trade market pond (potentially) is Giannis Antetokounmpo. The one-time NBA champion and two-time MVP is still one of the very best players in the league, but his time in Milwaukee is beginning to feel awfully similar to the end of Kevin Garnett's run in Minnesota.
The Bucks have tried to put the best possible team around Giannis. Despite their good intentions, it hasn't worked: Unloading Jrue Holiday, a critical part of their 2021 title-winning team, was a massive mistake, and replacing him with Damian Lillard, a phenomenal shooter and scorer who isn't known for his defense, has backfired. Dame has more star power than Holiday, but he doesn't impact winning in the same way, at least not at this point in his career.
To make matters worse, Lillard tore his Achilles in Game 4 of the Bucks' series against the Pacers, which means that not only wasn't he there to help the Bucks stave off elimination at the hands of Indiana, but he'll almost surely miss all of next season, too. That would make him 36 by time he returns, and the rest of the Bucks are aging, as well. Brook Lopez isn't nearly the player he used to be, and he's about to be a free agent, anyway. The Bucks tried to get younger by shipping Khris Middleton out for Kyle Kuzma at the trade deadline, but that move hasn't worked at all.
If Giannis' loyalty to the Bucks outweighs his desire to contend, he may stay put, but it seems like he's facing peer pressure from around the league to take his talents elsewhere. The Lakers have a history of pulling in other teams' stars (remember that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was a Buck before coming to L.A.), so is there any way they could possibly land the Greek Freak?
What kind of package could the Lakers put together for Giannis?
Giannis makes over $48 million, and Luka and LeBron aren't going anywhere. This means that the only way the Lakers can make the salaries match in a potential deal is to pull out the old Kylo Ren gif and keep adding MORE. The Trade Machine says that it would take Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Gabe Vincent and Maxi Kleber for Giannis to make the numbers work, but would the Bucks go for that?
Even though Reaves is bordering on becoming an All-Star, Rui is a serviceable starter and Vincent has the potential to be a capable role player, this alone wouldn't move the needle for one of the three best players in the world. The Lakers would also need to throw in as many first-round picks as possible. One slight issue: They don't have any available to be traded until 2031, because they're already without their picks in 2025, '27 and '29. They could swap firsts in 2026, '28 and '30, but that does nothing for a Bucks team that would be slamming the reset button and will have a worse record than a Luka-LeBron-Giannis Big 3 for the foreseeable future.
Other teams will have much more to offer the Bucks, most notably the Thunder, Nets and Rockets, each of which has a war chest of picks that could leave the Bucks no choice but to do the unthinkable. Picturing Giannis paired with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or leading an up-and-coming Rockets team is a tantalizing thought, as is seeing him take over the overachieving Nets to give the Knicks some competition for the title of Kings of New York.
If Giannis is available, every general manager with a pulse will at least make a phone call, and of those, the Lakers rank behind more than just the three aforementioned teams in terms of what they can offer. The Warriors are one possibility, as are the Heat, who will be looking to leap back into contention after things went south with Jimmy Butler.
Even if Rob Pelinka could somehow cast the same hypnosis on Bucks GM Jon Horst that made Mavericks GM Nico Harrison opt not to inform any other team that Luka was available, the Lakers still wouldn't be able to pull this off for the simple fact that the entire league would revolt if they were able to trade for Luka and Giannis in just a few months' time.
LeBron got a taste of being the villain when he took his talents to South Beach, but that would be nothing compared to the nightly scorn he'd get if he got to play out his twilight years alongside Luka and Giannis. Adam Silver would need Secret Service protection if he allowed a Giannis-to-the-Lakers deal to go through.
Hollywood is full of dreamers who believed in the impossible. That hopeful mindset could lead Lakers fans to picture Giannis physically overwhelming opponents while Luka puts them in a blender and LeBron does LeBron things and believe that it's possible, but this one isn't going to happen, folks. Best to move on to more realistic possibilities.