The Los Angeles Lakers enter the offseason in need of a roster overhaul. Not necessarily from the top, as it appears that Austin Reaves and potentially LeBron James could return alongside Luka Doncic in LA for 2026-27. However, where changes need to come is everywhere outside of this big three. The NBA Playoffs exposed this team's depth wasn’t good enough to truly compete.
In the postseason, especially with Luka not playing when AR or Bron checked out, this team lacked answers offensively. Sure, Rui Hachimura was great, but he isn’t a shot creator—he’s more of a catch-and-shoot sniper.
It’s very easy to underrate the importance of guard play when your starting guards are Luka and AR. However, the team's lack of guard play seriously hurt them this postseason.
This is why Rob Pelinka and company should look to target Anfernee Simons this offseason. The soon-to-be 27-year-old is set to hit unrestricted free agency.
Anfernee Simons could be the bench spark Lakers have been searching for
If you haven’t been keeping up with the career of Simons lately, here’s a refresher. During the early stages of the 2025 offseason, he was traded to the Boston Celtics in a cost-cutting move involving Jrue Holiday.
In Boston, he initially struggled but found a role as a bench bucket getter for the Celtics before being dumped for Nikola Vucevic at the trade deadline. He then played six games for the Bulls, in which he struggled, before sitting out the remainder of the season.
In the 55 total games he appeared in, Simons averaged 14.3 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, while shooting 44.0 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from deep.
The big issues with Simons throughout his entire career is the dude simply can’t guard. During his seven years with the Portland Trail Blazers, he showed a lack of effort on that end and struggled with keeping a man in front of him.
For a team centered around Luka, that makes his fit kind of concerning.
There are two counters to that point. First, in this past season with the Celtics, Simons bought in defensively like never before. He still wasn’t a steal machine or some defensive playmaker, but he gave effort, trying his hardest to just wall up and stay in front of his man. The Celtics have a great defensive infrastructure, so hiding him on that end is easier, but I digress.
The second thing is Lakers fans need to get over the idea of signing these elite two-way guys and understand that those types of players aren’t cheap. Pelinka needs to focus on finding players to fill roles, and Simons is exactly that as a scoring guard off the bench.
The other thing that is really intriguing about the potential addition of Simons this summer is his improvements as a catch-and-shoot player. He’s always been known as a pure shot creator, so the idea with signing him would mostly be to have him run the second unit.
But he can also play off Luka, Bron, or Reaves, too. Last season, his catch-and-shoot 3-point percentage jumped from 37.7 percent the year prior to 42.9 percent. When Simons was in Boston, he got comfortable eating off drive and kicks. With the Lakers, he could replicate that.
For a Lakers team that lacked shot creation from the bench and made the eighth fewest triples per game in the regular season, Simons could be a great value add in free agency. He’ll likely be demanding no more than $12 million per season and could be a sneaky pickup for Pelinka.
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