A superstar duo of Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo has always made a ton of sense to me. Doncic and Giannis are two wildly different franchise pillars whose strengths, weaknesses, and positions on the court complement each other quite well. Whereas Luka is a magical ball-handler and natural shooter with defensive issues, Giannis is a rim protector and overall defensive demon whose outside shooting inconsistencies wouldn't matter if he were catching 10 lobs a night from Doncic.
Lakers-Giannis trade buzz skyrocketed and then slowly dissipated
As soon as Giannis trade buzz started brewing out in Milwaukee, the Los Angeles Lakers were naturally looped into the rumors, given LA's history of attracting the game's biggest stars. Were Giannis to leap from the Bucks to the Lakers, he'd be mirroring the career of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
But ever since that initial wave of Giannis-Lakers hype, things have slowly died off, and people around the NBA generally don't mention the Lakers in connection to Antetokounmpo anymore. That's because the Lakers are expected to re-sign Austin Reaves to a max deal and bring back LeBron James this summer. With a potential run-it-back situation emerging with their star trio of Reaves, LeBron, and Luka, the Lakers don't have room for Giannis, fiscally or basketball-wise.
But what if Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka decided to throw all of that out the window? What if Pelinka decided he was open to a sign-and-trade involving Reaves, as well as the notion of moving on from LeBron? In essence ... what if Pelinka committed himself fully to the idea of pairing Giannis with Doncic, and not worrying about a thing else roster-wise until he accomplished that mission?
Lakers could still make a play for Giannis if Rob Pelinka changed his outlook
Armed with only two tradable future first-rounders, the Lakers aren't viewed as a team with enough assets to trade for Giannis, but people making that assessment are also under the assumption that Reaves and (maybe) LeBron are definitely coming back. When you reconsider the Giannis question for the Lakers and think about a starting package of Reaves and two future firsts, suddenly Pelinka appears closer to constructing a good enough haul for Giannis than expected. Would the Lakers need to add more assets to that package to beat out other offers for Antetokounmpo? Of course.
It's still a long shot for the Lakers to trade for Giannis this summer (and that's being kind), but given how wide open the Bucks are being about trading Antetokounmpo (they are literally operating as if they'll have multiple first-rounders in the upcoming draft, per ESPN's Jeremy Woo), the Lakers can't say that Giannis will ever be more available than he is right now. There's no doubt that a core duo of Giannis and Luka would be the beginning ingredients of a champion. Whether or not Pelinka is capable of pulling off the front office gymnastics is another question.
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