With the Lakers opening training camp in a week, storylines from the last few months will be brought back to the forefront of conversations.
How will superstar guard Luka Doncic lead the franchise after it decided to fully entrench itself in an era guided by him?
Will the Lakers’ offseason roster reconstruction – which included the departure of LeBron James after eight seasons in Los Angeles and addition of nine players over the last three months – provide the desired results?
Will Walker Kessler live up to the investment the Lakers made to acquire him?
Will Austin Reaves be ready to be the true No. 2 behind Doncic?
The answers to some of these questions won’t be known until the end of the 2026-27 season. Others may take even longer to answer.
But the next month will provide clarity on one front: What will the Lakers do to become compliant with the league’s roster rules?
When the Lakers signed Matisse Thybulle to a veteran’s minimum contract (one year, $3.3 million) in late July, to deal put the team at 16 players signed to guaranteed standard NBA contracts – one more than the league permits during the regular season.
Since the signing, there’s been a focus on what route the Lakers will choose to trim its roster down to a maximum of 15 players before the regular season starts in mid-October.
And with training camp around the corner, and the start of the season four weeks away, the decision will be back at the forefront of conversations.
Which route would best serve the Lakers?
Player-for-pick trade
If this option was available for the Lakers, the belief is they would’ve already pulled the trigger on the move by now.
With Jaden Hardy, Dalton Knecht and Jarred Vanderbilt being the players who are most likely expected to be traded or waived, the question becomes whether any team would be willing to send out a draft pick to acquire any of them.
It’s clear that isn’t the case.
Remember: The Lakers received a pair of second-round picks from the Wizards when they traded Deandre Ayton to Washington despite both Hardy and Ayton essentially being on expiring contracts.
Vanderbilt’s contract status ($12.4 million this season; $13.3 million player option for 2027-28) and Knecht’s diminished role make it unlikely the Lakers would be able to acquire even a second-round pick for either player on their own.
Consolidation trade
This is the likeliest trade scenario for the Lakers to get down to 15 players.
A 2-for-1 involving two of Hardy, Knecht and/or Vanderbilt, and a team with at least one open roster spot and a player on an expiring contract, would get the Lakers at the 15 players they need to be at by mid-October.
There’s a chance they’d still be able to acquire an asset such as a second-round pick this way.
But even if they didn’t, this scenario would make them roster compliant and maintain future financial flexibility.
Waiving player
The least desirable option – outside of a trade that adds money onto the team’s salary cap for future seasons – would be outright waiving a player on an expiring deal, such as Hardy or Knecht.
It would put the Lakers at 15 players.
But it would also mean they’d have to eat the dead money for the rest of the season since the deadline to waive a player and use the stretch provision on their current-season salary passed last month.
