{"id":812737,"date":"2026-07-20T18:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812737\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T18:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T18:20:30","slug":"lakers-notes-kuminga-thybulle-kaluma-assistant-gm-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/812737\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Notes: Kuminga, Thybulle, Kaluma, Assistant GM Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"

Momentum has \u201cstalled\u201d on the Lakers\u2018 pursuit of free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic<\/a>. Rumors connecting Kuminga to Los Angeles have been ongoing since late June, but Woike hears that the Lakers and Hawks are still far apart on terms of a potential deal and L.A. isn\u2019t \u201coverly motivated\u201d to include significant draft assets in any of its sign-and-trade offers.<\/p>\n

However, Woike cautions that a potential Kuminga deal isn\u2019t dead because it\u2019s still the \u201cbiggest upside play\u201d remaining for the Lakers\u2019 offseason. Cleveland also reportedly has interest in Kuminga, but Woike can envision the Lakers reemerging as a possibility if the market remains slow.<\/p>\n

Kuminga became a free agent when Atlanta declined<\/a> its $24.3MM team option for next season. No team has enough remaining cap space to make the kind of offer that Kuminga is seeking, so he\u2019ll have to rely on a sign-and-trade. It\u2019s not clear how much interest the Hawks have in re-signing him, especially after adding forward Luguentz Dort<\/a> in a three-team trade<\/a> on Sunday.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Lakers:<\/p>\n

Woike confirms a recent report<\/a> from The Stein Line that L.A. has interest in free agent\u00a0wing\u00a0Matisse Thybulle<\/a>. He notes that injuries are the main concern with Thybulle, who played just 45 games over the past two years, but adds that he was healthy at the end of last season and could provide a low-cost three-and-D option. The team is also hoping to add another big man, team sources tell Woike.
\nThe Lakers may have to move quickly to sign Arthur Kaluma<\/a> to a two-way contract before another team does, Woike adds. The 6\u20197\u2033 forward, who played for the team\u2019s G League affiliate last season, was one of the top players in Summer League, averaging 18.6 PPG while shooting 60.9% from the floor and 50% from beyond the arc. Woike notes that current two-way players Chris Ma\u00f1on<\/a>, AK Okereke<\/a> and Peter Suder<\/a> might be expendable, although Okereke impressed the coaching staff with his defense and shooting.
\nScouts in Las Vegas were wondering when president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka plans to name his second assistant general manager, per Woike. Rohan Ramadas was hired<\/a> in May to run the team\u2019s analytics department, and Pelinka said after the season ended that he also wants someone to oversee player development and scouting. The Lakers began conducting interviews for the position during the season, and league sources tell Woike that there\u2019s external confusion about the process. He adds that Minnesota\u2019s Steve Senior and Philadelphia\u2019s Prosper Karangwa are believed to have turned down offers from L.A. to remain with their current teams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Momentum has \u201cstalled\u201d on the Lakers\u2018 pursuit of free agent forward Jonathan Kuminga, according to Dan Woike of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[387620,373922,64,63,7227,218448,590,387621,387622,85,387623],"class_list":["post-812737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ak-okereke","tag-arthur-kaluma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-matisse-thybulle","tag-nba","tag-peter-suder","tag-prosper-karangwa","tag-sports","tag-steve-senior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}