The Lakers wasted no time reshaping their roster.
Sandro Mamukelashvili spent years bouncing through rotations in Milwaukee and San Antonio before he found a real role with the Toronto Raptors this past season, and that breakout is about to pay off in a big way.
The 27-year-old forward and center agreed to a four-year, $52 million contract with the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, according to ESPN's Shams Charania, giving Los Angeles another shooter and rebounder to plug into a frontcourt that badly needed both.
The deal is fully guaranteed and comes with a player option on the final season, and it arrived just hours after a much bigger trade landed the Lakers a starting center, together turning over a huge chunk of the roster in a single afternoon.
A Career Year
Mamukelashvili finally put it all together on a Toronto team that finished 46-36 before falling in the first round, starting 13 of his 80 appearances and setting new highs across the board with 11.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists a game.
He also shot better than ever from deep, hitting 38.9 percent of his threes on a career high 3.7 attempts a night, and his full season numbers with the Raptors show just how much of a jump it was from prior years.
Floor spacing like that from a big man is exactly what Los Angeles has been missing, especially with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves both needing room to work in pick-and-roll situations.
Mamukelashvili finished 10th in Sixth Man of the Year voting and turned down a $2.8 million player option to test free agency, a bet on himself that paid off with a much bigger deal in Los Angeles.
Lakers Remake the Roster
The signing came right on the heels of a sign and trade that sent Walker Kessler to Los Angeles from Utah, a move that cost the Lakers a pair of unprotected first-round picks but brought back one of the league's top rebounders and rim protectors, and his production before a season-ending shoulder injury shows exactly why teams valued him so highly.
Guards Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton signed on the same day, rounding out a stretch that saw the roster nearly rebuilt from scratch in one sitting.
All of it traces back to Tuesday, when LeBron James informed the organization he would be leaving after eight seasons.
With that chapter closed, the front office moved to protect the four-year extension it had just given Austin Reaves while finishing a search for size that had already included talks about other free agent centers on the market.
The Lakers finished the 2025-26 season 53-29 and reached the Western Conference semifinals before Oklahoma City swept them, and this fast start to the offseason suggests a front office that wants a deeper, more physical roster ready to push further next spring.
