Lakers push all their chips into middle with Walker Kessler trade, Reaves, free agent moves

Sometimes, we build something up in our mind for weeks or months or years, and then the moment comes, and it’s over in a flash. The Lakers’ summer of 2026 felt like that.

Before Luka Doncic fell into their laps and gave a direction to a roster retooling, the Lakers were pointing to the summer of 2026. That was when their books would be clean, they would have some draft picks to trade and they could take a big swing. The summer of 2026 was when the Lakers would reshape the roster for the future.

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Then everything happened in a span of an hour on Wednesday — a blockbuster trade, a rapid succession of free agent signings — and with that, the Lakers have pushed all their chips into the middle of the table, going all-in on what happened in that hour. This is their core.

The foundation for that magical hour was laid in two steps. First, the Lakers re-signed secondary shot creator, fan favorite and Doncic’s friend Austin Reaves to a four-year, $184.8 million extension. That was more than the Lakers had hoped to spend, but Detroit was lurking with a max offer, so to keep Reaves that was the price.

The second step was finalized Tuesday when LeBron James made official something that had felt like it was coming since before Christmas — he would not be returning to the Lakers. The exit of someone who brought the Lakers back to relevance and earned them banner No. 17is underappreciated by too many of the team’s fans, but it also was time — and the Lakers needed the cap space his exit created.

Then, in the span of 45 minutes, the Lakers changed everything.

First, the Lakers traded for Walker Kessler, the 24-year-old, 7’2″ center that everyone around the league expected the Jazz would hold on to long-term. However, the lure of essentially four first-round picks — two unprotected first-round picks (2031, 2033) and two first-round pick swaps (2028 and 2030) — was too much for Utah to pass up.

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Kessler is exactly the kind of force at the rim that the Lakers need on both ends of the court. Most importantly, Kessler is a high-level shot blocker — and the Lakers are going to need that with Doncic and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/lakers-push-chips-middle-walker-020956057.html

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Publish date : 2026-07-02 02:09:00

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