The Los Angeles Lakers don't lack starpower with LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and Austin Reaves running the show. But often, it's the moves not involving star players that ultimately decide how successful a team becomes. For the Lakers, choosing to keep Dalton Knecht on the roster while cutting Jordan Goodwin in the offseason may come back to bite them in a big way.
Goodwin played 29 games with the Lakers last season; he averaged just 5.6 points per game but provided energy on the defensive end, disrupting the rhythm of ball-handlers and being a pest pretty consistently. He was waived to make room for Marcus Smart, who theoretically filled the same need that Goodwin did. But somehow, Goodwin ended up the most productive out of those three players, and he's the one who the Lakers let walk.
Waiving Knecht was probably never in the cards; but the team unsuccessfully tried to trade him last year, and then instead of dealing him in the offseason, they kept him around and cut a guy who was clearly good enough to be a nightly rotation player. That's simply poor roster management!
Lakers constructed their bench poorly in 2025-26
The Lakers are 30th in the NBA in bench scoring. That's last, for anyone keeping track. Granted, we all knew the Lakers would get a majority of their production from the starting lineup, and Jordan Goodwin wouldn't cure all of the second-unit woes for this team.
Instead, the Suns — who are tied with the Lakers in the Western Conference standings — are reaping the benefits of Goodwin's energy, rebounding, and connective passing ability. So while Goodwin isn't going to win or lose the NBA Finals for the Phoenix Suns, he has been good enough to swing a few games for the Suns.
Meanwhile, Dalton Knecht is basically out of the rotation and will likely be traded for underwhelming draft assets sometime in the next two weeks. I'm still not fully giving up on Knecht, for the record. He's too talented a shooter not to find a niche in the league. But it won't be in Los Angeles, and the Lakers don't have much room for error in their bench unit. Cutting ties with Goodwin was, simply, an error on the part of Rob Pelinka and the front office.
Nitpicking a move this minor might feel trite; but the Suns are a direct competitor of the Lakers and if things continue to trend this way, the teams could be battling for the final non-play-in spot in the West. Goodwin would have kept the Lakers from the backup guard headache they're currently dealing with.