Right after the draft and before free agency I wrote a series talking about what the Golden State Warriors divisional rivals had been cooking up. It’s time to take it to the next level and talk about what these foos did after that.
The Los Angeles Lakers are a team the Warriors have to worry about ever year in the Pacific Divsion, but this summer that team doesn’t have LeBron James anymore. Before Golden State gets lost in its own offseason business, it’s worth understanding what LA actually built to replace him.
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The short version: they gutted the roster and reloaded around Luka Doncic. Rui Hachimura is gone, as are Marcus Smart, Luke Kennard, and Jaxson Hayes. In their place, general manager Rob Pelinka landed center Walker Kessler, guards Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton, frontcourt additions Sandro Mamukelashvili and Kevon Looney, wings Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle, and first-round rookie Cameron Carr.
Kessler is the move that defines the whole offseason, for better or worse. LA gave up two future first-round picks and two pick swaps to get him, then signed him to a four-year, $130 million deal. Everything else this summer was complementary. Kessler is the bet.
Magic Johnson believes this is exactly what a post-LeBron reset was supposed to look like. The Lakers legend has been posting his approval on X since the moves started landing, and his read is straightforward. Johnson wanted this roster to get younger, faster, and more athletic around Doncic, and he believes the front office delivered exactly that.
Defensively Kessler os a legitimate rim protector, Thybulle is a two-time All-Defensive presence on the perimeter, and Sexton and Grimes as players who bring real skill sets to the wing. however ESPN’s Zach Kram isn’t nearly as sold. His grade for the offseason landed at a C+, and the reasoning cuts right at the roster’s actual math.
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The Lakers might have been the busiest team of the summer. But did all that activity make them better, or were they merely running in place?
“Of the top seven Lakers in playoff minutes this spring, the newly extended Austin Reaves is the only player still on the roster. He, Luka Doncic and Kessler form a strong three-man core. But the Lakers now have one of the NBA’s weakest forward groups, a glaring hole at backup center and almost no remaining draft assets to trade after giving up a haul for Kessler, who has never really played a meaningful NBA game.”
Soooo getting busier this summer isn’t the same as getting better eh? Hmmmm I feel like the whole offseason comes down to one question: does replacing LeBron with seven useful players actually leave you with a better basketball team?
LeBron’s production isn’t getting handed to one player. It’s getting spread across a franchise. Doncic can be the offensive engine. Is it arrogant to suppose that a team would lose a late stage LeBron James and then get immediately better? Has any team immediately got better after Bron left? Then again, Doncic might just be that dude and with Reaves alongside him, it might be enough to terrorize anybody on a given night.
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Maybe this roster looks complete two years from now. The Warriors only care about the version showing up this season, while seven new rotation players are still learning how to play together and a post-LeBron identity is still under construction.
