The Los Angeles Lakers head into the offseason with plenty of room for improvement at the big man position.
Center Jaxson Hayes started at the position for Los Angeles in four of the team’s five games against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the opening round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, but he looked quite outmatched facing off against the likes of Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid.
Hayes didn’t score more than two points or grab more than three rebounds in any of the four games he played in, and he didn’t even see the court for Los Angeles in Game 5.
Considering Hayes is on the heels of an underwhelming playoff stint with the Lakers and the team is in dire need of talented big men, it shouldn’t be shocking that the squad has been linked to plenty of big men as of late. Let’s take a look at all of them.
Deandre Ayton
- Contract status: set to hit unrestricted free agency in 2025
Ayton is one of the newest names being linked to the Lakers, and he may be the biggest name to circle right now, based on some recent reporting.
The Athletic’s Dan Woike reported on Monday that Ayton is a target for the Lakers following his buyout with the Trail Blazers.
The noise grew louder when NBA insider Chris Haynes said that Ayton signing with L.A. is a “strong possibility.” He also appeared to indicate that “all signs are pointing” in the direction of the big man landing with the Lakers.
Ayton needs to clear waivers following his buyout, then he can agree to a deal with a new team. He would be an intriguing addition for the Purple and Gold.
The 7-footer hasn’t lived up to the all the expectations he entered the league with, but he’s still been a consistent double-double threat in the NBA. He holds career averages of 16.4 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Jakob Poeltl
- Contract status: under contract for 2025-26 season; player option for 2026-27 season
According to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto, the Lakers are a team that could show interest in trading for Poeltl if he can’t come to terms on a new contract with the Toronto Raptors.
“Poeltl is owed $19.5 million for the 2025-26 season and has a player option for the same figure for the 2026-27 season,” Scotto wrote. “Should Poeltl not get an extension done with Toronto, a team such as the Los Angeles Lakers – who are seeking an upgrade at center – could have trade interest. Poeltl has previously signaled he’d like to get an extension done and remain a Raptor, if possible, and [Masai] Ujiri called him a ‘backbone’ during his exit media availability.”
Poeltl has a real case for being one of the more underappreciated centers in the NBA today, as he’s been a consistent double-double threat and stout rim protector for years now, yet he has never earned an All-Star nod or a place on an All-Defensive team.
Across his last four seasons in the league with the Raptors and San Antonio Spurs, he’s averaged 12.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.4 blocked shots per game. Plus, he just recently averaged a career-high 14.5 points per game with the Raptors in the 2024-25 regular season.
Jaren Jackson Jr.
- Contract status: set to hit unrestricted free agency in 2026
Of all the big men connected to the Lakers, Jackson might be the one who would help the Lakers compete for next year’s championship the most. When at his best, he’s a star two-way player who is more than capable of spacing the floor behind the 3-point line, as he’s a career 35.1 percent shooter from deep and buried 37.5 percent of his 3s this season.
He’s an equally gifted player on the less glamorous end of the floor, as he’s led the league in blocks per game twice and won the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year award in the 2022-23 campaign.
However, people shouldn’t expect Jackson to be donning a Lakers uniform anytime soon, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently claimed that there’s “no chance” the Memphis Grizzlies move Jackson after they dealt Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic.
Walker Kessler
- Contract status: set to hit restricted free agency in 2026
Folks would be hard-pressed to find a center below the age of 25 with more talent than Kessler. The Utah Jazz big man provided the Jazz with efficient scoring and elite rebounding in the 2024-25 season.
First, Kessler averaged 11.1 points while shooting 66.3 percent from the field in his third NBA campaign. He also converted 77.0 percent of his shot attempts at the rim, which means he made the most of his opportunities to score inside.
However, Kessler’s most valuable skill might be his knack for pulling down offensive rebounds. It’s not hyperbolic to claim that he’s one of the elite players at generating extra possessions in the league, as he pulled down a league-high 4.6 offensive rebounds per game this season.
The Athletic’s Jovan Buha has poured cold water on the notion that Kessler could soon end up a Laker, though, as he claimed recently that Kessler isn’t a realistic target for Los Angeles.
“I think the issue with Walker Kessler and with Utah in general is their asking prices tend to be higher, and I think to trade a Lauri [Markkanen] or to trade a Walker, it is going to be a high price,” Buha said.
He also mentioned that Utah would want quite a bit in return in any trade for Kessler.
“I just don’t know if they have the requisite assets to get a Walker Kessler, but I think he’s likely available for the right price,” Buha said. “I just think that price is very high, and I don’t know if the Lakers can get to it.”
John Collins
- Contract status: player option for 2025-26 season
Multiple NBA reporters have reported that the Jazz and Lakers have held talks on a trade that would send Collins to Los Angeles, including Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune.
“The Lakers-John Collins has been a conversation that’s been had,” said Larsen. “The Warriors were interested at the trade deadline before they got Jimmy Butler. I think, just contract-wise, that doesn’t work out anymore. He had a productive enough season last year that there should be interest in the league somewhere for him. I don’t expect the Jazz to get value back necessarily in those deals though.”
It’s worth noting that Collins is a power forward rather than a center, so he likely wouldn’t be the answer for the Lakers at the center position. However, he stands out as a possible upgrade over Rui Hachimura at the power forward spot.
Collins has a case for being the most talented offensive player on this list, as he averaged 19.0 points per game with the Jazz this season on great efficiency from inside and outside the 3-point arc, considering he shot 52.7 percent from the field and 39.9 percent from 3-point range.
The Others
Nic Claxton and Daniel Gafford
Around a month ago, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times cited Claxton and Gafford as two big men who were getting connected to the storied franchise in early offseason rumors.
“The team has shown no interest in using [Austin] Reaves in a trade that nets them anything less than a top-tier big, and there really aren’t any of those available, with the two most common names linked to them in the earliest stages of the offseason — Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton and Dallas’ Daniel Gafford,” Woike wrote.
Gafford was a key big man in the Dallas Mavericks’ rotation the past two seasons and helped them reach the Finals in 2024. Claxton has been a solidified starting big man in the league for a bit now with Brooklyn.
Goga Bitadze, Luke Kornet, Day’Ron Sharpe, Larry Nance Jr. and Precious Achiuwa
The Orange County Register‘s Khobi Price mentioned the quintet of big men as realistic options for the Lakers via free agency or trade. Kornet maybe enjoyed the best 2024-25 campaign out of anyone in that group, as he was a solid backup big man for the Boston Celtics this season.
Kornet gave the Celtics productive two-way play off the pine all season long, and folks maybe got a glimpse of how productive he could be in a larger role when he saw extended playing time at points in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. He was particularly phenomenal in Game 5 of the Celtics’ second-round series versus the New York Knicks, as he finished the game with 10 points, nine rebounds and a whopping seven blocked shots.
Robert Williams III, Brook Lopez and Clint Capela
Anthony Irwin also reported that the Lakers have been showing interest in trading for Williams and will monitor Lopez and Capela in free agency as potential reserve players at the center position.
“Sources close to the team reiterated that the internal plan is to trade for their starting center – sources say they’ve held conversations with other teams about Nic Claxton, Robert Williams, Walker Kessler and others – then, ideally, use the taxpayer midlevel on his backup – Brook Lopez and Clint Capela are the two names most often linked to the Lakers,” Irwin wrote.
Lopez has actually played for the Lakers before, though it was a brief and forgettable stint for him in Los Angeles. Shortly before he joined the Milwaukee Bucks, he averaged 13.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game with the storied franchise back in the 2017-18 season.
Williams has been injured a lot recently in his NBA career, as he appeared in just 20 games in the 2024-25 season with the Trail Blazers.
At his best, he is a stalwart on defense (he made an All-Defensive team in the 2021-22 season), but the Lakers may not want to rely on him as their only big man, should they make a deal, since he has played in less than 40 games in each of the last three seasons.
As for Capela, he’s a veteran center that had great success in his career as a lob threat with James Harden in Houston and Trae Young in Atlanta. He could be a perfect fit for Doncic in the Lakers’ offense.
