The Los Angeles Lakers have a known interest in completing a sign-and-trade for Jonathan Kuminga. Unfortunately, the Atlanta Hawks, Kuminga's most recent team, have thus far been unwilling to accept an offer that would see Los Angeles include Jarred Vanderbilt in the deal.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype has proposed a workaround that would see Los Angeles send Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy to Atlanta instead. Unfortunately, it's revealed how flawed a move for Kuminga would be if Vanderbilt is still on the roster.
In his latest intel drop, Scotto corroborated the report that the Hawks are unwilling to take on Vanderbilt. Their concern appears to be centered around his player option for the 2027-28 season, which is the very reason Los Angeles would conceivably like to trade him.
Scotto then suggested a different avenue to acquiring Kuminga, proposing a sign-and-trade that centers around Jaden Hardy and Dalton Knecht.
"...the Hawks have been resistant to taking on Vanderbilt’s $13.29 million salary for the 2027-28 season, which is a player option. Could a combination of Dalton Knecht and Jaden Hardy, who both have team options for the 2027-28 season, work better in a three-team trade construct involving Kuminga landing with the Lakers and the Hawks getting a traded player exception along with draft pick compensation?"
Scotto's idea is sound, but a harsh reality bubbles to the surface: Acquiring Kuminga on a potential multi-year deal only makes sense if the Lakers can offload Vanderbilt.
Lakers can't justify adding Jonathan Kuminga without offloading Vando
Los Angeles reportedly offered Kuminga a two-year, $20 million contract offer. After his previous deal included a team option, it's fair to assume—although it is just an assumption—that he'd either want a guaranteed second season or a player option for year two.
In that scenario, the Lakers could realistically be on the hook for roughly $25 million for Kuminga and Vanderbilt in 2027-28.
Compounded by the fact that Kuminga reportedly wants closer to $20 million per season, Los Angeles could owe upward of $30 million per season to the duo. That's not an inherently bad thing, but context is crucial—and in this case, damning.
Kuminga isn't a natural fit in the Lakers' rotation who simply needs to sign the dotted line. Much like Vanderbilt, he has flaws that could prevent him from ideally complementing Luka Doncic.
Jonathan Kuminga is too imperfect a fit to add without trading Vanderbilt
Kuminga is a better shooter than Vanderbilt, but his career mark of 33.2 percent from beyond arc leaves an abundance of room for improvement. Considering Doncic and Austin Reaves are ball-dominant playmakers locked in as the first and second options, that makes off-ball value a pivotal attribute for anyone on the roster.
Kuminga certainly offers quality as a high-flying finisher, but his lackluster shooting suggests there could be issues in regard to finding a truly well-rounded off-ball role.
That could be stomached if he were the only expensive non-shooter in the rotation. Unfortunately, Vanderbilt would seemingly still be on the books in this scenario. To make matters worse, center Walker Kessler isn't a floor-spacing big.
As such, there's a realistic scenario in which the Lakers would be paying in the range of $60 million per season for three non-shooters who can't consistently play together. That simply isn't acceptable.
Furthermore, the Lakers have already gambled with four-year contracts for Quentin Grimes and Sandro Mamukelashvili. There's optimism that they can make the fit work, but they have flaws of their own and have yet to play for the purple and gold.
With this in mind, committing another multi-year deal to a player who needs to prove they can make the fit work without first trading a known question mark in Vanderbilt would be too risky to justify.
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