Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - ESPN CAP GURU Offers CONTRACT IDEAS for Possible Lakers FREE AGENT TARGETS!

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

The Lakers have to figure out how to resign their own key free agents, starting with Austin Reaves and (probably) LeBron James, and moving on to (probably) Rui Hachimura. But to improve the team, they're going to have to find some new guys, too. They can't just run it back and expect a different result. (Especially after selling the Bold Summer of '26 to fans for a while.) So at the least, the Lakers need to kick the tires on what is ultimately a weak year for free agents. Particularly the unrestricted variety. Because while guys like Peyton Watson, Tari Eason, Walker Kessler and Jalen Duren would look great next to Luka, they're also going to be darn near impossible to pry away from their current teams without the Lakers going crazy large on an offer sheet. Like, renounce everyone and throw all that money to your RFA big. Not a great strategy. So who are the players in the next tier? The ones who still come with a big price tag, but nothing like the guys above? And given their limited trade chips and a cap situation that isn't quite as flexible as it's sometimes presented, how should LA prioritize offseason needs?   HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky   SEGMENT 1: The restricted free agents like Peyton Watson? Don't get your hopes up. SEGMENT 2: Where should the Lakers look? SEGMENT 3: Deeper options at C and F.    FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Lakers have some shopping to do this offseason. Where should they start? Who should be the priorities? We'll tell you next. You are Locked on Lakers. Your daily Los Angeles Lakers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Thanks everybody for stopping by.

Locked on Lakers, Brian Komenetsky, Andy Kaminetsky, plenty to cover in today's show as we start to dive into the actual names. the people who might be available at least when it comes to free agency. You never know who's going to be available in a trade, Andy, but we all kind of know who the free agents are going to be. The Lakers have at least a little bit of potential flexibility, depending on how they handle the players on their roster. It is not a great free agent year,

but not one without any talent at all. It's a matter of where you want to prioritize those dollars. Yeah, I think in a lot of ways. It's indicative of how the Lakers this offseason, they have optionality. It's not as good as I think, A, they would like it to be, B, as they definitely would like to project that it is. They want to message that basically the world is their oyster slow down, but it doesn't mean that they have no avenues to make the team better.

I will stop you. To some degrees, the world is somewhat their oyster, except the oysters aren't very good this year. It's a bad year for oysters. You know, the harvest isn't that good. It's like they have some optionality. It's just not a great year for options. Well, I still got to shuck something,

and that's what we're going to get into. Nice. We're going to finish off that metaphor. Yeah. But it's, you know, it's, the point is it's not just that they don't have, that their optionality isn't

as deep as you would like because I agree with you. You know, when you start to factor in things like, you know, the, you know, yes, you can trade players into your cap space. But do you have things that teams want to trade for? Like, do you have those appealing pieces that could help be the, the kind of the linchpin of a, of a really big trade offer? The answer to there is really no. The Lakers don't have those kinds of things.

You know, you have a little bit of flexibility to get free agents. As I mentioned, the free agency market isn't great. In fact, the three of arguably the best, I don't know, seven or eight, restricted or unrestricted free agents, unrestricted free agents to be, at least, are on your team. So you're spending theoretically your own money to bring back either LeBron or Austin Reeves or somebody like Rui Hachamura. So yeah, like I agree with you. It's like, you know, even if you want to say that they have optionality, the options aren't great, but also, too, they have less than they've been advertising. Well, also, too, and we'll get into this because particularly with restricted free agency, it's complicated both in terms of, you know, targeting, trying to figure out that sweet spot in terms of players to target the lowest number that you can put out there for an offer sheet. that a player would accept, but also high enough that it's going to make the team that they play for bulk and decide not to match it.

So, like, and in the meantime, restricted free agency means, you know, the minute another team, a minute another player, a minute the other player signs that offer sheet. There's a waiting period in which time, your cap space, that it's essentially because, you're, a cap hold for a different player and you can't play with that money. And you know, you often have to overbid. And, you know, one of the big things that we're going to end up talking about with Bobby Marks, he had a piece. We addressed it earlier last week about, you know, the contracts that he would offer various free agents around the league. We focused before on LeBron, Austin, and Rui, the cap numbers that, contract numbers that Bobby Marks threw out and, you know, what we thought of them, whether we pay it, not pay it.

I think it's too much, what we think the Lakers would do. But one of the themes that it's going to come up here is just the price that is generally paid in free agency, whether for unrestricted free agents or especially restricted free agents, which is why I know you in particular are not a particularly big fan of building a team or relying on free agency to be a big part of building a team because it often means paying more than you want to get what you want. Yeah, there's no question. Like, I mean, well, I think the, you know, it's sort of two conversations.

Like, I think the idea like, you know, how would you ideally build a team? What are the avenues you would use? What are the, because part of what makes that conversation really worth having is because you really start to get into questions of process, questions of what you value and how you order things and how you arrange your architecture to try to build a really good team. The Lakers aren't in a position to be able to make those kinds of choices about how they want to do it. They're in the position they're in, which is we have a little bit of cap space. We have three first round picks, which, if we're being completely honest, have somewhat limited value

because unless you think the Lakers are just going to completely collapse. So maybe the pick that's the furthest out has a little bit of value. But unless you think the Lakers are going to completely collapse, those are picks in the mid to late 20s most seasons. So you have to work with what you have. And unfortunately for the Lakers, that free agency part of it is going to be something they really need to rely on. Now, that counts for big ticket items,

but it's also going to count for stuff off the bargain. bid. Now, we won't get too deep into the bargain bin stuff today, but it is important to understand. Like, free agency can mean go find your Julian Champany. Like, you know, that kind of thing. You know, sign in Austin Reeves, sign an Alex Caruso, go get those guys. But in terms of the bigger names, yeah, like they're going to have to do it. Like you said, if you want to even sniff the possibility of Peyton Watson, you can't just pay a number that you think is going to be. at the upper end of what Denver wants to give him

or the upper end of what you're comfortable giving, you're going to have to blow their doors off because otherwise they're going to keep him. Well, let's actually, let's start with Peyton Watson, because he's one of the guys that Bobby Marks had spotlighted as some of his top free agents, and he's somebody that's been linked to the Lakers for a while.

He's a restricted free agent wing from the Nuggets. He was having a fantastic season before he had a hamstring, injury. That's the injury du jour these days. Both for the Lakers and for the NBA. Bobby Marks, the deal he said he would offer would be four years, $90 million,

$22.5 average annual value. Also noted how the Nuggets are dealing with some cap issues and tax issues and apron issues, but this number according to Bobby Marks would allow

Denver to avoid the second apron once they get Cam Johnson's money off their books in the 27, 28 season. Possibly, Eric Gordon, too. There's another. You know, they may have to, they're over the luxury tax now, yada, yada, yada, trying to figure that stuff out. But Watson, like I said, was having a terrific year, about 15 points per game, almost 50% from the field, almost 42% from behind the arc. And by the way, and significantly better than that when that stretch where Yolkut, that stretch where Yon was hurt, you know, 10 games, 15 games or whatever. And Watson was a frontline player for them. He was putting up huge numbers.

Yeah. And he also is a California, LA guy, went to high school and Long Beach, played at UCLA. The Lakers have been linked to him for a while. To whatever degree, he is a clutch client. To whatever degree you think that is a good thing, bad thing, neutral thing, whatever. but he was recently at the Lakers facility for the annual Clutch Pro Day, which obviously had a lot of people excited.

The number, though, for Peyton Watson, I am guessing you are going to have to go way over 40, four years, 90 mil. Perfectly reasonable number. If you're Denver, you can get him for that number. There is a zero percent chance that he, that the nuggets would let him go to another team, particularly the Lakers.

Oh, yeah. For an AV in AV of average annual value of, you know, just above 20 million bucks. Well, that's also a prayer. And that, by the way, I hate to say it. Like, people talk about the Lakers tax with trades and, you know, to whatever degree that exists. I don't know. I think the Lakers managed to make a fair amount of trades that I don't think they, overpay the hell out of compared to the rest of the league. However, it's one thing to trade with

the Lakers. It's quite another thing to basically not pay enough money to prevent one of your guys to go to the Lakers. And basically, every fan base around the league hates the Lakers. So that is always going to be an optics issue when it comes to this specific thing and this specific team. And I will say this. The Nuggets aren't letting him go to the team. Timberwolves, they're not letting him go to the spurs. They're not letting him go to the clippers. They're not letting go anywhere for 22 and a half million, or 22 or 23 million on average over the next four years.

It's not just the Lakers, but of all of those teams that I named, the optics in Denver would be worse. So he is most not going to the Lakers for that number. So we'll talk about, like, I think, what at least I think it would take for the Lakers to pry away somebody like Watson. I think you could put Walker Kessler in this category as well. So we will get to if you want to look at centers, a couple other restricted free agents. And then move a little further down the line to guys that might be a little more realistic.

We'll get in all that next. We're seeing it in the chat. We're seeing it in a lot of places as well. But the most, the consensus seems to be. you know, Peyton, if I could pluck a person off the free agent wire and just be like, you know what, you don't get a chance to either protect that player again. I would, it would be Peyton Watson, you know, a legitimate 3&D guy who is on the upswing, who is very young and has tons of space to improve.

I think it is, there's, without giving him like, you know, 40 million bucks, just or whatever it is. It's not going to happen. After that, you could look at somebody like Tari Eason along the wing, sort of Peyton Watson light in some ways. But a good defender, at least generally, is a good three-point shooter, although he had a brutal slump during the late part of this. For his career, he averages 35%, which is solid, not great,

but the defense in particular, We saw it against LeBron in the playoffs. He was fantastic for what it's worth. Bobby Mark's deal lead offer four years, 85.1, which is 21.2 AAV. So pretty close to Peyton Watson. Also not a number that's going to get him away from the rockets. No, it is not. So again, the point being here is to get these prime unrestricted free agents,

you really have to go above and beyond probably what you're comfortable with as an organization. And that would certainly apply to the centers. Now, Walker Kessler would look interesting. I'd be intrigued by having that kind of defensive anchor next to Luca Donchich for a few years. Kessler, again, young up-and-coming player, Jalen Duren, bad, playoffs aside is another young up-and-coming player, not the defensive presence that Kessler is. He's been good, though.

I mean, he's been good. Few people are the defensive presence that Kessler is. Right, but the Pistons defense was better this year with Duren on the floor than when he was off. And the team this season was far better with him on the floor than with him off. again, the playoffs, as you noted, were they were very bad and there's no sugar-coding it. He's also 22 years old. And in theory has a lot of room to grow. But he averaged close to 20 and 10 this year.

Like he had a really good season. Pretty good. And if you're going to spend money, I mean, I think the attraction, whether you're talking about Watson or Esen or Kessler or Duren or guys like that is like, especially as an RFA, you're going to have to overpay. If you're going to overpay, I'd rather do it for somebody, you know, who's under 25, you know, somebody's 23, 20, you know, 22, 23, 24, 25 than somebody who's 27, 28, 29, 30, where you know there's a good chance you're buying some down years at the end of that

contract. So it's a leap of faith, but it's a leap of faith at least with players who are pre in their prime as opposed to after. I don't like the number for Eason's not big enough to steal them away. The number I think, you know, the numbers that I think that Kessler was given and Duren was given. These are not numbers to steal away. They're the numbers that the home team would be comfortable giving. The numbers, by the way, really quickly for Kessler, four years, 125.

That's what Bobby Marks would offer 28 million starting points. A.A.V. And with Jalen Duren five years 180, starting at 31 AAV, increasing 8% per year over the lifeline of a contract. Just so. And some of these things, right, they're a little bit fluid based on what the actual caps. It's all done based on the percentage of a team's cap space. But that's what it would be based on current projections. Like, those are big numbers, but those are appropriate numbers for players of this caliber. And again, you're going to have to spend much more than that to get them away. It does raise the interesting argument, I think, between in a vacuum,

what would you prioritize? Like I said, I would love somebody like Peyton Watson because he is a, you know, I've mentioned guys like Scotty Barnes, for example. It's like you want players next to Luca who have a little bit of offensive juice. who can spread the floor a little bit, but also defend. And somebody like Watson is a player who could like, you know, let's pretend in a couple of years you're looking at a core of Luca, Austin,

and Peyton Watson as your three primary scorers. Like that can, you can do a lot with that. And then Watson adds the defense. It's, you can argue for a player like that. You can also very much make an argument. for a top-tier center.

Conceptually, before we even get into the players, which do you prefer in a perfect world? In a perfect world, I think I would always go center just because I think it's harder to find a center than it is to find a wing. So I would think about this from the standpoint of scarcity. That being said, though, if you're looking at, say, the restricted free agent,

that we have been discussing, like you could make an argument that Peyton Watson is the best overall fit and maybe addresses the most amount of needs on this particular team, particularly if, say, you end up with DeAndre Aitin and Jackson Hayes back next season.

And we talked about earlier in a show we did, I think, a week or so ago, talking about the center play of this team and how it ultimately wasn't good enough. But you could maybe argue depending on which centers you're talking about Duren for the amount of money it would cost, Walker, Kessler for the amount of money it would cost, or maybe somebody like Mitchell Robinson or Robert Williams, who are unrestricted free agents and they will cost much less money.

But they also come with concerns of their own injuries being one of the big ones for both of those guys. they are often banged up a lot. And if you bring in Mitchell Robinson and or Time Lord, you have to have at least one other good center, playable center on hand, like one that you feel comfortable out there because Mitchell Robinson and especially Robert Williams, you can pencil them.

Robert Williams, you pencil them in missing 30 games and you hope. We'll talk about this a little bit more. Yeah, we'll talk about this a little bit more of the next segment. But like, yeah, like you, even if he doesn't, even if he doesn't get hurt, he's got to sit probably one out of every three games. And there's one out of four. And there's only so many games, so many minutes you can play him.

Like you're not going to play Robert Williams probably more than 20 minutes a night, if that, because again, it just increases the odds that he's going to get hurt. So, and Mitchell Robinson is one of those guys that I think can be very effective in bursts. Yeah. But you start getting over 20, maybe even 25 minutes and night, you're probably pushing it. Let's look at some of these other names. Before, you know, we're not talking, you know, the real bargain bin stuff.

But, you know, the prominent free agents, but not the ones that are going to cost you 35 million a year. We'll get some of those other potential names next. This is where to me, Andy, you know, you start getting into these, you know, particularly the unrestricted free agents because, you know, restricted free agents are a big deal every year. Everybody talks about them. They very rarely go anywhere.

And then even some of the unrestricted names, Norman Powell is a big unrestricted free agent who doesn't make a whole lot of sense for the Lakers. Probably be out of their price range anyway. C.J. McCollum is a guy who's very likely to end up just going back to Atlanta. Kobe White's going to be really hard to pry away from Charlotte. I assume who is almost certainly, going to go back to Minnesota.

So like the Lakers wouldn't be able to get guys like that without renouncing pretty much everybody, like to put an offer out for a $35, $40 million player. Further down the list, though, there are some intriguing names. Mentioned before, Mitchell Robinson, the offer that Bobby Marks had out there, three years, 39 mil. I think that is fair value for Mitchell Robinson. And the things that he's good at, he's really good at. He is a monster on the boards.

He can be a really good deterrent around the rim. I mean, he is great when it comes to cleaning up messes. He can be a target for Luca, you know, finding him around the rim, Austin presumably back around the rim. But he cannot create any offense on his own. he is also so bad at the line, like, that you may have to take him out during a lot of high leverage moments because he is basically hack a shack without nearly the same upside as shack that makes it worth keeping him out there. And he gets hurt a lot. Like, he feels in a lot of

ways more like a luxury backup or part of a solid but unspectacular tandem. And if you bring in Mitchell Robinson. And again, the same can be said about Robert Williams, who I think in, as far as his on-court skills, I think is actually in many ways like a perfect fit for what the Lakers would be looking for.

He's a better player than Mitchell Robinson. Yeah, he is a better overall player. He's more versatile. On both sides of the ball, he can offer, I think, a bit more than Robinson, but he's hurt a lot. And if you bring in one of those guys, automatically have to be thinking about who else am I bringing in at the position?

Or do we have enough versatility without our centers to create credible small ball looks? Because otherwise, you have to price in the amount of time that guys like Williams and Robinson will not be available for one reason or another. I look at those guys as a really good example of why this challenge is so hard. I do think these are the types of players with a new CBA will, I think, favor the Lakers a little bit because, you know, nobody is the, you know, 10 years ago, Robert Williams on the free agent market would still get like wildly overpaid. Like people just throwing money around. Like that's not going to happen or, you know, Mitchell Robinson or players like that. I think the market is going to really depress those types of players who have tons of question marks who are, you know, limited in one way or another, either because they're injured a lot, because they're one-dimensional,

because whatever it might be. So in that sense, I think those players are kind of attainable. I do love the idea. I agree with you. I think Williams would be a really intriguing fit. He's getting a little further away from the super duper, duper, duper chronic stuff

in the sense that he had a relatively clean season with the Blazers this year, a lot of sitting. like a lot of sitting, like not playing in back, you know, both sides of a back to back. And as you note, also limits on his minutes. My question is this. And we'll talk about this with the draft. We'll talk about this in a lot of ways.

Where do you prioritize the better player or the better, like sort of the stronger positional need? I have my philosophy about this. But I think the Lakers have to really give this question a lot of thought because they can't address every single need around the roster. So do you get a lesser 3-and-D guy or a better shooting guard or a better power forward? You know what I mean? This is how I would answer the question. It would be the best player at positional needs.

Like, for example, a guy like I.O. Dissoumoo, who I really like. and I don't think the wolves are going to let him leave anyway. But given that Luca's on the roster and presumably Austin's going to be back, I don't think you can make somebody like Io Dissun Mu, one of your top priorities, because you already have a fair amount of what he brings to the table in the first place. Like, you know, it gets back to my concerns that I've expressed many times about Luca and Austin as your building block foundations. because while I think those guys complement each other very well offensively,

they have too many of the same weaknesses and don't supplement each other or bring enough variance to their skill sets. They're too similar for better and for worse. Dissou basically would triple down on that. So I would look for the best player available at a position of need. I would look if possible, particularly, or not even possible, I think it's mandatory, particularly if you are dead set, like you being the Laker front office, is dead set on Luca and Austin as your foundation moving forward

or two of your top three players moving forward. You cannot prioritize anybody else who basically does the same thing as those guys. And doesn't play defense. Like whoever you bring in as your prime acquisition over the off season has to be a better defender. Like you've got to somebody. That's the sort of skill set type of things you have to look. Like the good news is the arguments, the need for both wing players who can defend and a better option at center are both so strong. you can go get the best available whatever at that position.

And it's not going to be a big, but nobody's going to get mad if they take the better player at center than what was available as your potential defensive wing, or vice versa. Because go get the better player. That's the better contract that makes the most sense, whatever it might be, all of those, you know, the guy that fits in the best.

it's where it becomes like are you got to be real careful about over extending to fill a need that is totally legitimate but you're doing so with a player that for really being honest here probably doesn't fill the need that you in the way that you want but now you're on the hook for three or four years or whatever because you feel like you have to, you can't come out of the summer without addressing that neat. That's the pressure the Lakers are going to be under because there's a tremendous amount of it this offseason, Andy, to make big splashes. And it's hard to make big splashes without some trade acquisition or some free agent acquisition where people can look at it and say, many years, big number.

the Lakers, like look at them, making things happen. There's a lot of pressure to do that kind of thing. Well, I've said many times that I do not expect this offseason as much as is hinging on it and as much as I do think they're going to try to be aggressive if for no other reason, then I feel like they have no other choice. I cannot envision an offseason where the dust settles and they look like. they can go toe to toe with OKC or San Antonio. Like that's just not realistic in terms of the tradable pieces they have.

They don't have that type of cap space. You know, as we discussed earlier in the show, they're in a position where some of the best free agent options are their own guys. And, you know, they may be in a place where they have to walk a line between running it back up to a point, but still trying to make it better. But they need to make tangible improvement. this off season. Like they need to feel like they are 60 to 70% of the way done after this off season

in terms of their grand vision of being able to compete with everybody. So you look at 60 to 70% done, then you try to fill in the next 15-ish or so percent at the trade deadline if possible. Then you try to finish off everything else in the 2027 off season. So it feels like for the 27, 28 season, you really are ready to rock and roll against whoever. And that is a, that's a really tall order. But at the same time, that's the timeline that you're on with Luca in his prime. You only have so many years before all of a sudden he's 30 and maybe looking around somewhere else.

Yeah, both of those are legitimate things. And we'll quit here. But I, you know what, I would phrase slightly. different just in terms of or add this to it maybe is a better way of putting it. I don't know. It's hard to quantify, like, you know, how far along you are to getting towards, you know, those top guys, those top teams. You know, did you, did you make it 40, 50, 60, 70?

I agree with you. You got to make some sort of tangible progress. But I think, and I think you would agree. Part of it also is, too, you also need to be able to start being, like, leaving with a blueprint. Like the Lakers, the Lakers have had, you know, like tactics they can use. We're going to use free agency. We're going to save. We're going to hold off on this trade deadline because we're going to have picks to trade at the next one and all these things.

But there's not been any sort of tangible blueprint for what we're going to do that is sort of a long-term plan sustainable. We're going to add here. we're going to draft here. That's the other half of it for me. Because I think I am prepping, I'm sort of trying to prep Lakers fans on low-key for potentially being kind of disappointed. Because I think the Lakers will to some degree

over promise and underliver. I hope I'm wrong because I'd love to see the Lakers figure this out, have a really clever and creative offseason, and go in like you say. If not on par with Oklahoma City and San Antonio, Antonio, somewhere you can be like, okay, a couple little breaks here and there, and we're right there. That would be exciting. I think it's going to be hard to achieve than not, but I want to see a plan.

I want to feel like, okay, I know what they're doing and I know how they're going to do it. That's the other half of it in addition to the personnel. Yeah. You want to see the outlines of a roadmap and a vision of like, how does Rob Polinko, and, you know, Mark Walter and Rohan Ramadas and JJ Reddick and everybody who's, you know, Luca, you know, he's going to have a voice and all this. What is the vision of, you know, all these combined people putting their heads together and trying to figure out the best type of team to build around Luca quickly?

Like, you have to have a certain amount of patience just because otherwise you're going to take wild swings and make big mistakes. But clock is ticking, man. And like the clock is ticking in part because of the way they've handled the last few years. Like everything, everything leads up to where they are now. And the clock is also ticking because quite frankly, Rob Polink has got a new boss to impress. Yeah. And that boss is going to be much more, is going to be much tougher to impress than Jeannie Boss. I can promise you that.

The, the bad part about kind of kicking the candy. down the road and the Rob Polinka putting a lot optically on this summer. It's both important because it is. You got to start this rebuilding process around Luca, or not rebuilding, but the improvement process, you know, needs to kick into gear around Luca. But it's also an optics problem because Polinka over time has kind of turned this into the summer of whatever. We go back to, you know, quit where we started. It turned out to be a bad off season for this to be where the can stops getting kicked. Not a great end of the road location for the Lakers.

So we'll see. But people come up with interesting things. And the NBA offseason is always filled with surprises. Locked on Lakers on YouTube is where you're going to hang out with over 38,000 subscribers of the channel. Do check out the Everyday Air Club. We'll see you next time.