The Lakers spent the summer replacing LeBron James, and the roster they built raises one more question before training camp even opens.
Nobody around the Lakers expected the offseason to open with LeBron James walking out the door, but that is exactly how the summer started, and everything the front office did afterward has to be judged against it.
James signed with the Philadelphia 76ers in late July, closing an eight year run in Los Angeles, and that left Rob Pelinka free to build around Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves instead of patching pieces next to an aging superstar.
He spent freely once free agency opened, and the result is a deeper, younger team than the one Oklahoma City swept last spring.
The question now is whether deeper means better.
A Roster Built Around Luka and Reaves
Reaves signed a four year extension in June worth a reported $185 million, locking in the second star next to Doncic for years to come.
Walker Kessler arrived from Utah in July, sent to Los Angeles for two future first round picks and two pick swaps, giving the team a rim protector it has lacked for years.
"At the core of every great Lakers team is a dominant big man," Pelinka said when the trade was announced, adding that pairing Kessler with the team's two premier pick-and-roll guards was too good to pass up.
Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili joined as two way pieces who defend and shoot, Collin Sexton and Jaden Hardy bring scoring off the bench, and Kevon Looney backs up Kessler at center.
Vanderbilt and Thybulle handle tough perimeter defense, and LaRavia and Ziaire Williams round out a group of sixteen players on standard deals, one more than teams can carry into the season.
Why This Version Should Make Fans Happy
There is plenty to like here.
Doncic averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists a game last season, numbers that belong to one of the best players alive, and Reaves grew into a true second option, putting up 23.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.5 assists across 51 games.
Pairing that duo with a real rim protector in Kessler fixes the biggest hole from the LeBron years, when the Lakers routinely got hurt on the glass and around the basket.
Even if you go through a breakdown, the Lakers had a four time champion calling Kessler exactly the defensive upgrade this group needed.
The Case for One More Move
But happy is not the same as finished.
That many players on standard deals means one spot gets decided by a trade or a hard cut before opening night, and a logjam like that usually means a front office added pieces faster than it figured out how they fit.
Grimes, Sexton, Hardy and Mamukelashvili are similar types chasing the same minutes, and plenty have already flagged that none of them have proven they can be the steady third scorer a real contender needs.
The cleaner path is for Pelinka to package two or three of those overlapping wings into one player who solves it outright, rather than let training camp sort it out.
It would also help to watch the dust from the LeBron exit fully settle.
Training camp opens September 29, with preseason starting October 3, so there is still time to decide if this roster is finished or just a first draft.
