The Lakers spent Wednesday reshaping their roster in a single afternoon, and by Thursday it was clear they were not finished.
Even after committing more than $250 million across four moves, Los Angeles is still shopping for one more piece, and the front office keeps circling back to the same name.
The Lakers are continuing to explore adding Jonathan Kuminga to address a wing need, per reporting from The Athletic’s Dan Woike. Woike described Kuminga as a high-upside target receiving significant consideration as the team searches for perimeter-defense help, while the money required to actually land him remains the complication hanging over the whole pursuit.
The report
The interest is not new, but it has sharpened now that the Lakers have a defined core and a clearer picture of what is missing. Woike reported that Los Angeles is still seeking a young wing to bolster its perimeter defense, and that Kuminga is drawing serious internal consideration after Atlanta declined his $24.3 million team option and sent him to the open market.
Marc Stein added that the Lakers are pressing ahead despite their financial limits, and that the field around Kuminga is crowded. Cleveland and Milwaukee have both been floated as suitors in possible sign-and-trade scenarios, and a return to Atlanta has not been ruled out. In other words, the Lakers have identified their man, but they are not the only team that has.
Why the fit makes sense now
The wing need traces directly to who left. With LeBron James moving on and Rui Hachimura’s future in question, the Lakers thinned out at forward at the same time they were pouring resources into the center spot.
Their blockbuster sign-and-trade for Walker Kessler solved the paint, and the additions of Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili added scoring, but none of that fully answers the need for an athletic, switchable defender on the perimeter.
That is where Kuminga fits the profile almost too neatly. The 23-year-old, 6-foot-7 forward is one of the more explosive athletes available, a downhill driver and transition threat who can pressure the rim and defend multiple positions when engaged.
On a team built around the half-court gravity of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, a wing who creates easy offense with his legs rather than his handle is a logical complement.
The production tells the story of a player still searching for a home. Splitting last season between Golden State and Atlanta, Kuminga averaged 12.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game across 36 games while shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3, according to Basketball-Reference. For his career, the No. 7 pick from the 2021 draft sits at 12.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
The upside is obvious, and so is the risk. Kuminga flashed his ceiling in Atlanta’s first-round series against New York, including a 21-point Game 3 in a Hawks win, but his fit has been a persistent question at both of his previous stops.
The bet a team makes on him is that the right situation and a defined role finally unlock the tools. The Lakers would be wagering that Doncic’s playmaking and a clear job description can do what Golden State and Atlanta could not.
The cap problem
This is where the pursuit runs into a wall. Because the Kessler deal was a sign-and-trade, the Lakers are hard-capped at the first apron for the coming season, a ceiling that governs every remaining move. After the spending spree, Los Angeles is left with the minimum salary exception as its primary tool, which is almost certainly not enough to sign a player of Kuminga’s caliber outright.
To offer him anything beyond the minimum, the Lakers would likely have to clear money first, and the most-discussed route is the waive-and-stretch provision on an existing contract such as Jarred Vanderbilt’s. Stretching a salary spreads the remaining money across future seasons to open room now, but it comes at a real long-term cost and does not fully guarantee the Lakers could reach a competitive number.
There is a second complication. Because Atlanta declined Kuminga’s option rather than releasing him outright, the Hawks retain his Bird rights, which means the cleanest path to paying him is a sign-and-trade routed through Atlanta or another team that acquires his rights.
That is precisely the mechanism Cleveland and Milwaukee are reportedly exploring, and it is a lever the hard-capped Lakers can only pull so far. The honest read is that Los Angeles has the desire and a plausible fit, but not yet an obvious way to make the dollars work.
The competition
Even if the Lakers solve the math, they will have to win the room. Milwaukee has been tied to Kuminga as a destination where minutes and a featured role would be easier to promise, and Cleveland has surfaced as a sign-and-trade possibility as well. A return to Atlanta remains on the table, given the Hawks control his rights and could still bring him back at the right number.
What likely sways Kuminga is opportunity as much as money. A player coming off two uneven stops has reason to prioritize a situation that guarantees a real role, and that is the one thing a crowded Lakers depth chart cannot promise as cleanly as a rebuilding team can. Los Angeles can counter with the appeal of playing next to Doncic and chasing wins immediately, but the sales pitch is not one-sided.
Bottom line
The Kuminga chase is the tell that the Lakers view their offseason as unfinished business rather than a completed project. They have their core and a projected rotation, but the front office clearly believes the roster is a switchable wing short of where it wants to be, and Kuminga is the highest-upside version of that swing on the board.
Whether it happens will come down to money and motivation. The Lakers have to find a way past the hard cap, and Kuminga has to decide that a role in Los Angeles beats a bigger one elsewhere. For a front office that just spent its way to the edge of the apron and re-signed Austin Reaves to a long-term deal, landing one more rotation-caliber wing on a value contract would be a fitting final stroke of an aggressive summer. Right now it is a target and a hurdle, not a done deal.
