DeMar DeRozan is a free agent for the first time in years, and the timing looks almost too neat for the Lakers.
A six-time All-Star and Southern California native hit the open market Monday, on the very afternoon Los Angeles sits visibly short of wing scoring after Rui Hachimura’s departure to the Clippers. The reunion question writes itself.
The reported answer is no.
The Sacramento Kings waived DeRozan on Monday, the team announced, making the veteran one of the top names available in free agency. It was a cost-cutting move for a rebuilding franchise: Only $10 million of DeRozan’s $25.7 million salary for next season was guaranteed, and stretching that figure over three years would drop Sacramento below both tax aprons.
The bigger question for Los Angeles is not whether DeRozan is available but whether the Lakers have any interest. Shortly after the news broke, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that the Lakers are “not considered to be a potential landing spot” for DeRozan, noting the two sides had past dialogue, most notably back in 2021. That earlier flirtation went nowhere. This time, the disinterest appears to be by design.
Why the Lakers are staying out of it
The clearest explanation came from Jake Fischer, who addressed the DeRozan question directly on a Bleacher Report livestream Monday. According to Fischer, the Lakers’ silence has less to do with DeRozan’s resume than with the timeline the franchise has committed to around Luka Doncic.
“Haven’t heard that, and honestly, the Lakers have been so focused on getting players more on Luka Doncic, his timeline,” Fischer said when asked whether Los Angeles had interest, per the livestream.
He then put a finer point on the fit.
“I’d be really surprised if they wanted to bring on a 37-year-old DeMar DeRozan, who is not the typical 3-and-D wing player that you would want to put next to Luka Doncic,” Fischer said.
Fischer also reiterated where the Lakers’ wing attention actually sits.
“We know that Jonathan Kuminga is the leading wing target for Rob Pelinka and his front office at this juncture,” Fischer said.
He closed the door about as firmly as an insider can.
“I don’t think that DeMar DeRozan is going to factor into the Lakers’ situation at this point in time,” Fischer said.
The fit was always going to be awkward
Set aside the reporting for a moment and the basketball logic lands in the same place. DeRozan remains one of the most productive midrange scorers of his era, but that skill set sits at odds with what a Doncic-led offense is designed to do.
Los Angeles wants shooting and spacing around its primary creators. DeRozan provides neither in the modern sense. Last season he averaged 18.4 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game while shooting 49.7 percent from the field, but just 32 percent from 3-point range on low volume. He is a self-created two-point scorer in a league, and an offense, that increasingly asks wings to space the floor and defend multiple positions.
The defensive end compounds the concern. DeRozan turns 37 in August, and asking him to guard opposing wings next to a backcourt of Doncic and Austin Reaves would strain a defense the Lakers spent the summer trying to fortify.
The reporting around Hachimura’s exit made the priority explicit: The front office wanted more defenders, not fewer. A DeRozan signing would cut against that goal.
None of this diminishes what DeRozan still is. He ranked among the league’s best clutch scorers again last season and remains remarkably durable, having appeared in all but five games.
For a contender that needs late-clock shot creation, he is a genuine asset. For the specific roster Los Angeles is assembling, he is a poor match.
A roster built for a different timeline
The DeRozan decision fits a pattern that has defined the Lakers’ entire offseason. Since LeBron James informed the team he would move on, Los Angeles has systematically traded age and star wattage for youth and athleticism.
Out went James, Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard and Hachimura. In came Walker Kessler, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili, a group entering or approaching its prime rather than exiting it. The through-line is a supporting cast built to grow alongside Doncic and Reaves over several seasons, not one assembled to squeeze one final run out of aging veterans.
There is a financial dimension too. Having committed its cap resources to that group, Los Angeles has little beyond a minimum contract to offer anyone else, and DeRozan is reportedly seeking a regular role on a contender. Even setting fit aside, the money and the role the Lakers could realistically provide do not obviously align with what he is looking for.
Passing on DeRozan, in other words, is not a snub. It is the same decision the Lakers have made over and over since late June, applied to one more accomplished veteran who does not fit the blueprint.
Where DeRozan lands instead
DeRozan will not lack for suitors. ESPN reported that multiple contenders are expected to have interest, including teams that ultimately miss out on James in free agency and pivot to a proven scorer as a consolation.
The Miami Heat have been floated as one logical fit, particularly if they strike out on their bigger pursuits. A contender able to offer DeRozan the rotation role he wants, without asking him to anchor a defense or space the floor from deep, is the profile that makes sense.
That team is not the Lakers. Their answer, according to the people who cover them most closely, is already in, and it points somewhere else entirely.
For Los Angeles, the wing hole that opened when Hachimura left will be filled another way if it gets filled at all. Kuminga remains the target, the younger and more athletic profile the front office has chased all summer. DeRozan, one of the more accomplished scorers of his generation, simply arrived on the market at the wrong time for the wrong team.
