The Los Angeles Lakers are going to look different next season. A lot different.
Let’s start with who is still here on a standard contract: All-NBA first-team point guard Luka Dončić, newly re-signed shooting guard Austin Reaves, reserve forwards Jake LaRavia and Jarred Vanderbilt, and developmental corps holdovers Dalton Knecht, Bronny James, and Adou Thiero.
There has been a lot of movement from last year’s main roster, so I’ll introduce the new player and pair them with a player who has departed or is otherwise unsigned at this juncture of free agency:
Former Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler replaces starting center Deandre Ayton, who was traded to the Washington Wizards.
Former Toronto Raptors power forward Sandro Mamukelashvili replaces backup power forward Rui Hachimura (unrestricted free agent).
Former Philadelphia 76ers guard Quentin Grimes replaces starting small forward Marcus Smart, who signed with the Houston Rockets.
Former Chicago Bulls shooting guard Collin Sexton replaces backup guard Luke Kennard, who signed with the Phoenix Suns.
Former Wizards shooting guard Jaden Hardy replaces reserve shooting guard Nick Smith Jr., who had his team option declined.
Baylor shooting guard Cameron Carr replaces third center Maxi Kleber’s spot on the roster.
That’s 13 Lakers on standard contracts, leaving two open spots. One opening is Jaxson Hayes, an unrestricted free agent who agreed to sign with Utah. The other is LeBron James, the team’s top player in the first-round series win over the Rockets.
James’ departure needs to be acknowledged.
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The Lakers’ best stretches of the season came with James injured at the beginning, slowly integrating himself once he debuted or consciously playing the third-option role once Dončić and Reaves were healthy after the All-Star break. (In November, I noted this dynamic would be a factor.) The Lakers started 15-4 and had a 15-2 March — a combined 68-win pace over a full season. In the other 46 games that saw James prominently featured and Dončić and/or Reaves out for longer periods, the Lakers were 23-23 before a 4-6 postseason.
Now, the Lakers will have a full season with Dončić and Reaves as the offensive engines.
The Lakers no longer have the ceiling or insurance that James provides. He was around when Doncic and/or Reaves weren’t, was effective when he had to step up and was efficient in the third option role. The Lakers won’t have that going forward.
They need another quality forward on the team that can handle 25 minutes a game. James was the league’s leading fast break scorer and the Lakers’ top paint scorer. He was second on the Lakers in assists.
Let’s take a look at the working depth chart before getting into how the new additions affect this team on both ends of the floor:
Los Angeles Lakers pre-July 6 depth
Los Angeles Lakers July depthPGSGSFPFC
Starters
Luka Doncic
Austin Reaves
Quentin Grimes
Sandro Mamukelashvili
Walker Kessler
Rotation
Collin Sexton
Jaden Hardy
Jake LaRavia
Jarred Vanderbilt
Bench
Bronny James
Cameron Carr
Dalton Knecht
Adou Thiero
Last year’s Lakers were a bottom-10 pace team and were in the middle of the pack in pick-and-roll volume. Per Second Spectrum, only the Denver Nuggets averaged fewer drives per game, and only the New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder, LA Clippers and Dallas Mavericks averaged fewer passes per game. It was a lot of Dončić isolation with an intent to get to the paint.
Walker Kessler
In 2022, you would have thought the Auburn big man most likely to break $30 million a year would be Jabari Smith Jr., picked No. 3 in that year’s draft. Instead, it’s Kessler, the 22nd pick of that same draft, getting that financial commitment from the Lakers despite playing five games last season before season-ending shoulder surgery.
Kessler will replace Ayton as a starter. The Lakers wanted to move Ayton so badly, they traded him to the Wizards even after he opted in to the final year of his contract. Kessler is taller (7-foot-2, 245 pounds) than Ayton (7-foot, 252 pounds). While Ayton played a career-low 27.2 minutes per game last season, Kessler became a 30-minute player in 2024-25. Keeping Kessler healthy goes beyond his shoulder, as he has missed time in his career due to a left elbow sprain, a right foot sprain and left hip bursitis.
Dončić will be a boon for Kessler, who is leaving behind a very different offense in Utah. The Jazz were a fast-paced team that emphasized off-ball screens. Kessler will provide Dončić a big target with soft hands in the pick-and-roll; Ayton’s struggles to catch the ball were a point of contention for both Dončić and head coach JJ Redick.
It will be interesting to see if Redick lets Kessler unleash his 3-pointer; Kessler made 6 of his 8 3s in his five games last season after making only 11-of-56 from 3 (19.6 percent) in his first three seasons combined. Kessler likes to set up in the corner, although he showed flashes of becoming a long-range threat from above the break as well. If Kessler doesn’t shoot well, Redick might not trust him to keep firing.
It’s best to expect the Lakers to simplify Kessler’s offensive role and have him convert his paint touches. He’s not a post threat, won’t make shots in the midrange, shouldn’t dribble into shots and is not a great passer. Kessler is a significant offensive rebounding threat — he leading the NBA in offensive rebound rate in 2024-25 — which will provide the biggest offensive upgrade at center for the Lakers.
Kessler must live up to his new salary on defense. His size will be a key advantage, and he is a renowned shot blocker. Only Victor Wembanyama has blocked more shots per game than Kessler’s 2.4 since Kessler entered the league in 2022. As an overall rim protector, Kessler had some great years early, but made slightly less of an impact in 2024-25 before a poor five-game sample size in 2025-26. The biggest issue with Ayton wasn’t necessarily his individual rim protection, but rather that if he was taken out of the play, he stayed out.
However, Kessler’s presence alone won’t transform the Lakers’ defense. Even with Kessler’s rim protection, the Jazz were still the NBA’s worst defense in 2024 and 2025. It’s not like Kessler will be a particularly versatile defender either. The Lakers still have a starting center they’d prefer to keep in the paint as often as possible, and they’ve done little to address the secondary rim protection issues they had last season.
Sandro Mamukelashvili
The Lakers signed LaRavia last summer to replace Dorian Finney-Smith, and the 24-year-old wound up with his first 25-minute season while appearing in every game and starting 43 of them. They’re making a similar bet with the 27-year-old Mamukelashvili, who just played a career-best 21.9 minutes per game while collecting 13 of his career 28 starts for the Raptors last season.
Mamukelashvili was efficient last season, scoring 11.2 points on 52.3 percent from the field while making 38.9 percent of his 3.7 3-point attempts per game. Compare that to Hachimura, who scored 11.5 points on 51.4 percent from the field and made 44.3 percent of his 3.9 3-point attempts per game in about six more minutes per game. Mamukelashvili is a more willing passer, and he can match Hachimura as a finisher while being more willing to shoot the 3. However, Hachimura was the more accurate 3-point shooter, and was also a proficient midrange player in a way Mamukelashvili isn’t. Hachimura’s game held up in the playoffs, especially from distance, while Mamukelashvili’s didn’t.
Mamukelashvili typically guarded centers who didn’t have overwhelming size or output while coming off Toronto’s bench. In the playoffs, he was hidden onto low-scoring Cleveland forward Dean Wade.
Ideally, Mamukelashvili comes off the bench for the Lakers. He can get steals as a starter, but he’s not a rim protector or a great rebounder. A lineup with Dončić, Reaves and Mamukelashvili can be attacked on the perimeter.
If Mamukelashvili starts, he’s will produce confidently on offense. In his 13 starts, Mamukelashvili averaged 15.9 points, 2.9 assists, 1.3 steals and 2.2 3s while shooting 56.3 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from 3, though he grabbed only 6.2 rebounds.
Quentin Grimes
Grimes is replacing Smart, who was arguably the biggest X-factor the Lakers had all season. When Smart was on the floor, the Lakers outscored foes by 256 points over the course of the season. When Smart was off the floor, the Lakers were outscored by 112 points.
It will help Grimes that he and Dončić were teammates in Dallas two years ago. The Mavericks scored 120.7 points per 100 possessions when Dončić and Grimes shared the floor in 228 minutes.
Like Smart, Grimes is a much better 3-point shooter from the corners (42.2 percent) than above the break (30.4 percent), though he’s not shy about launching at will to stay a threat. Grimes is a better shooter off the catch than Smart, but asking Grimes to create his own offense can be rough — he made only 24 percent of his pull-up 3s and his in-between game is inefficient. Grimes had to be a playmaker off the bench for the 76ers, averaging 3.3 assists per game. That’s another similarity between Grimes and Smart, a reformed point guard who was basically a power forward connector on offense for the Lakers last season. The Lakers will welcome Grimes’ ability to jump and make his shots at the rim at a much better rate than Smart, especially on fast breaks.
Smart was the chief point-of-attack defender for the Lakers and was the choice to guard players like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Anthony Edwards. In the playoffs, he primarily took on Houston’s Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard before checking Thunder MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the second round. Grimes is taller and more athletic than Smart, with a similarly long wingspan, but is about 20 pounds lighter at 6-foot-5, 207 pounds. While Grimes is a solid defender and a good rebounder who can carry out the point-of-attack defender assignment for the Lakers’ defense, he isn’t built to be Los Angeles’ best wing defender the way Smart was.
Like Mamukelashvili, Grimes would be a great reserve but is merely an adequate starter.
Collin Sexton
Sexton is 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, though equipped with a 6’7″ wingspan. He’s also a shoot-first small guard who has usually played the off guard position when starting. He’s the opposite of Kennard, a shooting guard who showed he has some point guard in him with the Lakers.
Sexton was Kessler’s teammate in Utah for all but the five games Kessler played in last season. (They were also teammates with fellow Lakers reserve Jarred Vanderbilt.) Like Kennard, Sexton was traded midseason, splitting 2025-26 between Charlotte and Chicago. Sexton has always been an efficient bucket-getter considering his size and play style, and last season was no different. He made 44.5 percent of his 3s off the catch (40.1 percent overall) and 64.5 percent of his shots in the restricted area. Sexton also added 3.3 assists per game. He can easily be the engine of the second unit, which is notable for a Lakers team that finished 29th in bench points per game.
Last season saw Sexton average a career-best 1.1 steals per game. His defensive playmaking would be useful to a Lakers team that will need to replace the turnovers that James and Smart generated.
Jaden Hardy
Hardy is slightly bigger than Sexton at 6-foot-3, 198 pounds, and bigger than Smith. Hardy is even less of a point guard than Sexton is, with more turnovers than assists each of the last two seasons. Hardy is not an efficient scorer, either. His 3-pointer has improved, though, as he’s made 39.2 percent over the last two seasons. Smith made 39.5 percent of his 3s last season.
Defensively, Hardy has the length and physicality to guard up but hasn’t shown a nose for the ball as a rebounder. He only has 83 steals in 3,502 career minutes.
Cameron Carr
I went deep on Carr last week. If no other moves are made, Carr will have a chance this month to show he can challenge Hardy for a second-unit spot. He’s a taller and longer option for the Lakers than Hardy, and his leaping ability is tantalizing. But it’s more likely Carr will be competing with the rest of the Lakers’ developmental corps to stay ready for an opportunity to jump into the rotation.
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Bottom line
So much of the Lakers’ offseason will hinge on Dončić continuing to get easy buckets for his teammates. The Lakers should remain offensively capable; they added aggressive offensive players in Sexton, Grimes, and Mamukelashvili while acquiring a center with All-Defense potential in Kessler. Carr offers upside.
But none of these new Lakers have any track record of postseason success. Kessler and Sexton are still waiting to play in the postseason for the first time. The defense will still be in trouble if Kessler needs secondary rim protection, and he isn’t going to be the kind of center that can stop players on the perimeter.
James’ departure lowers both the ceiling and the floor for the Lakers, even if that won’t be felt unless Dončić or Reaves has to miss an extended period of time with this roster.