In the madness of the NBA trade deadline, it's easy to lose perspective. It's just as easy to be frustrated by watching a team miss opportunities. The Los Angeles Lakers have certainly had a few of those. However, in the grand scheme of things, they have done extremely well by doing nothing at all.
The Lakers have whiffed on moves that would have allowed them to upgrade while maintaining their financial flexibility. Kevin Huerter is one example of those misses. Ochai Agbaji serves as another instance of doable and not detrimental that Los Angeles fumbled.
However, by maintaining the expiring contracts on their team, something a handful of other franchises in the NBA opted against, they have set themselves up as the biggest players in 2026 free agency. Yossi Gozlan did a great job of explaining why.
Gozlan wrote, "In the past 48 hours, the [Los Angeles] Clippers, [Utah] Jazz, and [Washington] Wizards made big trades that eliminated their cap space. The Lakers are the only competitive team remaining that can offer max cap space in the 2026 offseason."
Lakers' trade deadline plan continues to prioritize offseason retool
There will be a handful of Lakers fans who are frustrated with 2025-26 season being esssentially treated as a gap year. Those feelings are not without some validity.
Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves are a talented trio to have and not do anything with. The Lakers and Rob Pelinka have just not given the impression they truly believe in this group being close enough to a championship. As such, the Lakers have not been buyers.
Is that the right call? That question will only truly be answered depending on the second stage of this strategy.
The Lakers have given themselves an opportunity to be the biggest players in the upcoming free agency window. Whether they can seize that moment to perfect their retool around Doncic and officially start that era in franchise history will dictate whether this was a success or failure.
It's tough seeing James still be as good of a basketball player as he is and feel as though the Lakers are squandering that. It's equally frustrating to watch Doncic play MVP-level basketball and not get rewarded with win-now moves.
However, the Lakers were only handed the perfect set of circumstances to land Luka. They were never given as much for molding the team around him. The plan is to figure out the latter, and that much has remained crystal clear throughout.