{"id":674708,"date":"2026-05-17T03:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/674708\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:04:08","slug":"lakers-linked-to-60-million-ex-mavericks-star-center-nba-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/674708\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers linked to $60 million ex-Mavericks star center, NBA champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> likely want to avoid signing\/acquiring assets with heavy baggage or troubling injury histories.<\/p>\n

Ideally, the Lakers would love nothing more than to land surefire contributors they could have the utmost confidence in. However, Sportsnaut\u2019s Jason Burgos<\/a> believes the Lakers should take a chance on a former Dallas Mavericks<\/a> star center and NBA champion (with the Boston Celtics<\/a>) who\u2019s proven to be injury-prone throughout his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Lakers are looking for affordable risks with upside this offseason, 10-year veteran Kristaps Porzingis should be on their radar,\u201d Burgos wrote Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis bizarre health issues have severely hampered him over the last two seasons. However, his 2023-24 season with the Boston Celtics showed he can be a serious difference maker on a title contender if healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he isn\u2019t a beast on the boards, he is a rim protector who is a lop threat and can stretch the floor. Because of his recent ailments, he might come at a bargain rate this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being a high-risk summer target, it\u2019s worth noting that Porzingis has already shown he can succeed alongside a ball-dominant superstar point guard in Luka Doncic. After spending the first 3.5 seasons of his career with the New York Knicks<\/a>, Porzingis joined the Mavericks via a midseason blockbuster deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former first-round pick was a 19+ point, 7+ rebound contributor during his short stint with Dallas, which was good enough to help the Mavericks reach the postseason on two occasions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, Porzingis, who was traded from the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> to the Golden State Warriors<\/a> before this year\u2019s Feb. 5 deadline, only appeared in 15 games with the Dubs this year due to various setbacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same could occur with the Lakers if Porzingis were to ink a deal with the franchise this summer, which is an unflattering possibility. Still, if Los Angeles is intrigued enough by the 30-year-old’s unicorn-like skill set, they may be willing to take a gamble that has a legitimate chance of backfiring.<\/p>\n

More NFL:\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers likely want to avoid signing\/acquiring assets with heavy baggage or troubling injury histories. Ideally,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-674708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}