The Los Angeles Lakers walked into the second day of free agency without a center and, in the span of roughly half an hour, walked out with a reshaped roster.
After acquiring Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade and agreeing to deals with Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili, the front office has finally handed Luka Doncic a supporting cast built to his specifications. With their spending power now essentially exhausted, the shape of the 2026-27 team has come into focus.
Here is how the Lakers’ projected lineup and depth chart look once the dust of Wednesday morning settled, and where the roster still needs work before training camp opens.
The projected starting 5
Barring another move, the Lakers’ opening-night starting group projects as Doncic, Austin Reaves, Grimes, Mamukelashvili and Kessler. It is a five built around the shot creation of Doncic and Reaves, with the three new additions plugging holes the roster could not cover a year ago.
Kessler is both the headliner and the fulcrum. The 7-foot-2 center gives Doncic the rolling, rim-protecting big he had asked the front office to find, a vertical lob threat on one end and a genuine paint deterrent on the other. He does not need touches to matter, which lets Doncic and Reaves run the offense without a third mouth to feed in the halfcourt.
Grimes slots in as the starting wing, a rangy guard who can defend on the perimeter and space the floor off the Lakers’ two primary creators. Mamukelashvili, added on a four-year deal, is a skilled, shooting-capable big who can play the 4 next to Kessler and slide up to backup center in smaller looks. Together, the two newcomers give head coach J.J. Redick lineup flexibility across the frontcourt that last year’s roster simply did not have.
The bench and the depth chart
Sexton headlines a reserve group that also includes DeAndre Ayton, Jake LaRavia and Jarred Vanderbilt, with young players Adou Thiero, Cameron Carr, Bronny James and Dalton Knecht rounding out the roster.
Sexton, signed to a two-year deal, gives the second unit a downhill scorer and shot-maker who can carry bench minutes when Doncic sits, addressing a need created by the departures of Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard. Ayton is expected back in a reserve role behind Kessler, and that insurance matters more than it might have a year ago, given Kessler’s recent health. Vanderbilt brings defensive energy across the forward spots, while Thiero and Carr are the developmental swings the Lakers are counting on to grow into rotation minutes.
The bench has scoring and size, but its playoff-caliber depth is thinner than the top of the roster suggests, which becomes clearer when the money is laid out.
The money, at a glance
The Lakers committed serious long-term salary to remake the roster in a single morning. Kessler’s four-year, $130 million deal is the centerpiece, followed by Grimes at four years and $60 million and Mamukelashvili at four years and $52 million, each carrying a player option, with Sexton added at two years and $19 million, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.
The Sexton signing effectively spent the last of the Lakers’ flexibility. From here, the front office can add only veteran-minimum contracts or reshape the roster through a trade, which frames every remaining decision this offseason. Any further upgrade will have to come cheaply or by moving a piece already on the books.
Where the roster is still thin
For all the activity, the Lakers did not close every gap, and the most obvious one is on the wing. The roster lacks a true stopper for the elite 6-foot-6 to 6-foot-9 scorers who define the Western Conference’s best teams, and neither Grimes nor Sexton profiles as the kind of point-of-attack defender who can slow a top guard across a seven-game series. The Lakers landed their defensive anchor in Kessler, but their perimeter defense remains a real question against the rosters they will have to beat in the spring.
Depth behind Kessler is the other concern. His durability is not a given after he appeared in just five games last season before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. Ayton is a capable insurance option in the middle, but a deep playoff run would ask a great deal of the young players behind him. The Lakers have long used their brand as a landing spot for veterans willing to sign for the minimum, and that is the likeliest path to adding a wing defender or a secondary ball-handler before camp.
None of that changes the direction of the roster. It simply defines the to-do list, and it is why the Lakers still look like a team with at least one or two moves left to make.
The bottom line
What the Lakers have, in the opening days of the post-LeBron era, is a coherent roster built around Doncic rather than a collection of names stitched together at the last minute. The starting 5 fits, the salary is committed and the center problem that shadowed the franchise all season is finally solved. Whether a minimum-deal wing or a midsummer trade can turn a well-constructed roster into a genuine contender is the question that will carry the Lakers through the rest of the offseason.
