{"id":865164,"date":"2026-08-20T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:14:09","slug":"lakers-have-major-momentum-to-sign-46m-ex-warriors-nba-champion-to-pair-with-luka-doncic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/865164\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers have major momentum to sign $46M ex-Warriors NBA champion to pair with Luka Doncic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are trying to prove they can remain in a great position even without LeBron James. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are now the faces of the franchise, and both have plenty to prove heading into the new season.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are still missing a starting power forward, and they have maintained significant interest in Jonathan Kuminga for quite some time.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is mutual free agent interest between Jonathan Kuminga and the Lakers, per Jovan Buha. Los Angeles continues to work behind the scenes to secure Kuminga’s commitment as their new wing addition,” NBA reporter Evan Sidery wrote.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is so interested in Kuminga that the organization has done everything possible to convince him to agree to a deal. The Lakers have made a strong pitch to Kuminga, even offering him a contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Lakers have offered Jonathan Kuminga a contract via sign-and-trade that would pay him around $45 million. Los Angeles is willing to send Jarred Vanderbilt alongside draft capital to the Hawks<\/a> for Kuminga, who must sign at least a three-year deal in sign-and-trade agreements,” Sidery posted.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> acquired Peyton Watson, effectively taking them out of the race for Kuminga. By Thursday morning, it was reported that Los Angeles was gaining serious momentum toward landing the NBA champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSignificant momentum is now building towards Jonathan Kuminga soon finalizing a contract with the Lakers. With the Cavaliers choosing Peyton Watson instead, Kuminga\u2019s options are now limited to Los Angeles or the Timberwolves<\/a>. Kuminga\u2019s preferred landing spot is the Lakers,\u201d Sidery wrote.<\/a><\/p>\n

This is great news for the Lakers, who are in desperate need of Kuminga to fill a major hole in their starting lineup. Los Angeles has spent the entire offseason pitching Kuminga on the opportunity to become a significant piece alongside Reaves and Doncic.<\/p>\n

Kuminga was on a $46 million contract last season<\/a>. After two months of negotiations and uncertainty, the Lakers finally appear to be closing in on a deal that has been a long time coming. The lengthy free-agency saga could finally be nearing its end.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to prove they can remain in a great position even without LeBron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-865164","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\/865164","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=865164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}