Lakers' Summer Shakeup: Missing on Kuminga and P.J. Washington
The Los Angeles Lakers have spent the summer swinging hard.
They tore up last season’s blueprint, moved out every starter from their first-round playoff series, and flooded the roster with fresh legs. Younger, deeper, built around Luka Doncic. That’s the idea.
But the plan hit its first real snag.
A Miss on Kuminga, a Hole Up Front
Jonathan Kuminga was supposed to be part of the answer. The Lakers chased him aggressively, only to watch him commit to a two-year deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The fallout is obvious.
“The Lakers’ failed pursuit of Jonathan Kuminga, who is signing a two-year deal with the Timberwolves, has left them with a hole in the frontcourt,” Khobi Price wrote in the California Post.
The numbers tighten the noose. With their payroll sitting just $8.1 million below the NBA’s $209 million first-apron threshold, the Lakers are hard-capped for the 2026-27 season. They already have 16 players on guaranteed contracts. Flexibility is not their friend.
They still have needs. Training camp is a month away. The market is thin, and their tradeable assets aren’t exactly overflowing. Any move that meaningfully upgrades the starting lineup will be difficult, maybe painful.
So attention turns, again, to a familiar name.
P.J. Washington: The Fit They Won’t Touch
On paper, P.J. Washington makes all kinds of sense.
He’s 27. He’s played next to Doncic in Dallas and looked comfortable doing it. He can stretch the floor, guard multiple spots, and fill minutes at both forward positions. For a Lakers team staring at a frontcourt gap, he looks like a clean solution.
Inside the building, they don’t see it that way.
“Off the bat, we’re starting with a player the Lakers have repeatedly said they have no interest in, if that gives you a sense of how dry the market is,” Lakers reporter Jacob Rude wrote in a mailbag.
After Los Angeles’ early free-agency splurge, many around the league circled Washington as the obvious way to plug the starting lineup hole. Reports quickly doused that idea. The Lakers, those reports said, had no interest in trading for Washington because of his contract.
The issue isn’t the player. It’s the price.
Washington is owed a fully guaranteed $88.8 million over the next four years — nearly $90 million committed deep into the window where the Lakers are already brushing against the apron. For a team that just hard-capped itself, that kind of long-term money on a non-star is a serious commitment.
“The Lakers have long been tied to trade rumors involving Mavericks forward P.J. Washington, a former teammate of (Luka) Doncic’s in Dallas, but as The Post previously reported, the fully guaranteed $88.8 million Washington is owed over the next four years isn’t appealing to the Lakers.”
In other words: they like the game, not the bill.
Waiting on the Market to Blink
So what changes, if anything?
If the Lakers won’t touch Washington now, the next logical checkpoint is the midseason trade deadline. That’s when rosters shake, expectations reset, and teams like Dallas reassess the balance between present help and future flexibility.
“I think Dallas could really stand to benefit from both P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford playing their way into greater trade value this season,” NBA insider Jake Fischer reported, noting, “I haven’t heard of any team targeting P.J. Washington for some time. Daniel Gafford has had far more trade interest, to my understanding.”
That detail matters. Around the league, Gafford is drawing more eyes. Washington, despite the skill set, is more of a contract puzzle than a must-have piece.
Dallas has poured over $300 million into its frontcourt. Washington and Gafford are key chunks of that investment. Behind them, younger bigs are climbing the depth chart and creeping toward their own paydays. Something has to give.
If the Mavericks can’t find a strong market for Washington, reality may force them to soften their asking price. At that point, the equation for the Lakers changes. Take on the money, but save on the assets. Accept the risk, but keep the picks.
The Lakers aren’t there yet. Right now, they’re staring at a frontcourt void, a tight cap, and a shrinking list of realistic options. Washington sits on the board as the kind of player who fits their needs but clashes with their books.
The question isn’t whether P.J. Washington fits next to Luka Doncic. He’s already shown he can. The question is whether, as the season unfolds and the pressure builds, the Lakers will decide that the cost of ignoring that fit is higher than the price of his contract.
