In fact, general manager Rob Pelinka has already made some key additions to the roster, including Deandre Ayton<\/a>, Jake LaRavia, and Marcus Smart<\/a>.<\/p>\n Signing an elite center was arguably the most important task for Pelinka this offseason, and he fulfilled it with the arrival of Ayton. However, one could argue that the Lakers still need a quality backup center.<\/p>\n While the Lakers re-signed Jaxson Hayes<\/a>, a player of Chicago Bulls<\/a> star Nikola Vucevic\u2019s<\/a> caliber would undoubtedly be a major upgrade.<\/p>\n Moreover, with Vucevic being on the Lakers\u2019 radar for years, it means that the organization rates him highly. Previously, the Bulls didn\u2019t indulge in a trade with the Purple and Gold around Vucevic.<\/p>\n It has led to Vucevic\u2019s trade value diminishing so much that he is expected to complete a contract buyout with the Bulls. The Laker Nation would love to sign the 34-year-old<\/a>, and Luka Doncic<\/a> can help in this quest.<\/p>\n How? Well, Doncic and Vucevic share the same agent in Bill Duffy. This means that if Vucevic completes a buyout, the Lakers could have the upper hand in negotiations.<\/p>\n The 2x NBA All-Star has given the last five and a half seasons of his career to the Bulls, but it\u2019s obvious that their time together is about to end sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n Adding fuel to the fire were former Orlando Magic<\/a> star Evan Fournier\u2019s comments. Fournier ridiculed the Bulls<\/a> while taking a shot at Vucevic after the latter called out his move overseas.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic has already proven he can recruit stars Ahead of his first full season with the Lakers, Doncic is doing everything in his power to bring back the glory days for the Lakers.<\/p>\n He has already undergone a massive transformation to silence his critics. Additionally, Doncic has been actively involved in recruiting players for the Lakers.<\/p>\n Smart admitted Doncic was a huge reason<\/a> behind his decision to sign with the Lakers. Ayton also acknowledged Luka\u2019s role<\/a> in his decision to join the Purple and Gold.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s not forget Ayton also has the same agent as the Slovenian superstar. So, Doncic has already given the inside track for one star; there\u2019s no reason to doubt he would do the same in Vucevic\u2019s case.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers could make yet another addition to their roster this offseason. After a poor postseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[1055,3014,355,34909,99,17814],"class_list":["post-43845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-nba","tag-nikola-vucevic","tag-sports","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nikola](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2194472588-941x627.jpg\")
Photo by Luke Hales\/Getty ImagesLuka Doncic could recruit Nikola Vucevic to the Los Angeles Lakers<\/p>\n![\"Luka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-2212823634-941x627.jpg\")
Photo by Harry How\/Getty Images<\/p>\n