The Los Angeles Lakers enter the 2025-26 NBA regular season in one of the weirder situations that a franchise can be in. On one end, they're committed to LeBron James through the 2026 campaign before he becomes a free agent, and who knows what the legend will do after that?
On the other hand, gold fell from the sky in February, as Dallas served up Luka Doncic on a silver platter for Rob Pelinka to snatch. So, LA now has their franchise player for the next decade, and they're trying to look towards the future rather than be beholden to a 40-year-old LeBron, as great as he's been for the organization.
Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss, and the rest of the Lakers' brass are stuck between a rock and a hard place: do we make the best decision for the long-term health of the franchise, or go all-in around LeBron, Luka, Austin Reaves, and the rest of the crew?
They seem to know that the former is a better decision, but many Lakers and NBA fans feel that James has earned one more chance to truly contend for a title for the first time in six years. After all, he is arguably the sport's greatest player, and he chose to save the struggling franchise when he signed in Hollywood in 2018.
Perhaps Los Angeles also feels guilty about the horrendous job they've done putting a championship-caliber roster around James over the past few seasons. Well, what if there was a way that Pelinka could accomplish both goals? A trade that could make LA an elite team in the present while also pairing Doncic with a star for the next five years?
Rob Pelinka Must Make This Mock Trade
For years now, the Lakers' front office has excused their inactivity by maintaining that there has been no perfect trade on the market. Separate from whether that's true or not, Pelinka and co. have allowed that to dissuade them from upgrading the team in any meaningful way around James and Anthony Davis, or now James and Luka Doncic.
Now that the Lakers have been blessed once again with a superstar in their prime falling into their laps, they mustn't make the same mistake again. If we're being honest, LA has been a pretty poorly-run organization for over a decade now. It's time to turn that around by investing in their new superstar.
The Utah Jazz have been considering trading Lauri Markkanen for the better part of three years at this point, but have never felt right about the potential returns for their 28-year-old star forward. Danny Ainge is notorious for trying to squeeze every last penny out of trade partners for valuable assets, sometimes to his detriment.
There's a reason Walker Kessler and Markkanen are somehow still Jazz players despite the franchise seemingly going backwards. The former Bull and Cavalier peaked in 2022-23 in his first season in Utah, winning Most Improved Player after averaging 25.6 points and 8.6 rebounds on a stellar 64% true shooting.
He's declined in the past two years to 23.2 and 19.0 points per game in just 55 and 47 games the last two seasons, and his value is only decreasing. He just signed an affordable four-year, $195.9M contract that begins this season, giving him the perfect runway to pair with Doncic for the rest of the 2020s.
Markkanen is a perfect partner for Luka: he's a big, athletic forward who can score at all three levels, be an off-ball marksman, and run pick-and-pop concepts with the Slovenian superstar. He'd allow James to slide back down to the small forward position, as Lauri is a seven-foot power forward.
So, what is the trade? Sports Illustrated's Jackson Caudell proposes this three-team trade between the Jazz, Lakers, and Atlanta Hawks:
Hawks receive: F Jarred Vanderbilt
Lakers receive: F Lauri Markkanen and F Svi Mykhailiuk
Jazz receive: G Austin Reaves, G Gabe Vincent, F Maxi Kleber, F Dalton Knecht, unprotected 2031 Lakers 1st-Round Pick, and an unprotected 2032 1st-Round Pick Swap (via LAL)
Why Would Each Team Do This Deal?
Let's quickly run through why the Atlanta Hawks would like this deal. They'd get a low-risk chance at squeezing the potential out of Jarred Vanderbilt, who has shown flashes of defensive brilliance in his young career and is still just 26 years old. Vanderbilt has All-NBA Defense level upside if he can just stay healthy, as injuries have ruined his Lakers tenure.
Atlanta gets a young win to play behind their three developing forwards to further boost their defense around Trae Young. Yes, Vanderbilt is on a $12M contract for three more seasons, so the Hawks have to eat that if he doesn't perform. However, if he does, that deal becomes a bargain, as well as being very tradable.
The Jazz would do this deal because it fully commits to the rebuild that they've been trying to execute ever since they got the Finnish star. Somehow, they've emerged from many losing seasons without a blue-chip prospect, and are no closer to the playoffs in a loaded West than they were three years ago, with or without Markkanen.
Still, they have some young talent that needs more opportunities, and shipping off their star will help that process along. In the deal, they bring back Reaves, a 27-year-old scoring guard who's shown the potential to be a primary option on a good team. He could either factor into Utah's plans or be flipped for more draft compensation. Reaves is also on an incredible contract.
Vincent and Kleber are both salary filler, but could bring back some small draft capital. Knecht, on the other hand, is a 2024 first-round pick who is likely worth at least a first-rounder but could also be a sharpshooter on this young Jazz team. As for the 2031 and 2032 picks, who knows where the Lakers will be in the 2030s? They've proven to be an incompetent franchise for a decade.
This trade would be a dream for Los Angeles, pairing Doncic and James with a win-now star who fits perfectly in their starting lineup. It removes the team's defensive issues with Doncic and Reaves in the backcourt without giving up scoring. A lineup of Doncic, Jake LaRavia, LeBron, Markkanen, and Deandre Ayton is as close to a contender as LA has been in quite some time.
They'd still have Rui Hachimura and Marcus Smart off the bench, but this would undoubtedly be a thin team.
Bringing in Markkanen to pair with Doncic for the future is also a no-brainer. He is 28, has four years left on his deal, and is the ideal partner for a Luka-led offense. If Lauri can improve defensively with his size and athleticism, LA would have a title shot every year. Rob Pelinka must try to do this deal, or at least pursue a similar kind of trade to upgrade the talent around his superstars.