Lakers Seek Backup Center Amid Financial Constraints

The Los Angeles Lakers built their summer around one big swing. Jonathan Kuminga chose Minnesota instead.

That decision didn’t just sting. It exposed a hole.

As Khobi Price of the California Post detailed, the failed push for Kuminga leaves the Lakers short in the frontcourt and boxed in financially. They sit just $8.1 million below the NBA’s $209 million first-apron line, hard-capped for the 2026-27 season, and already carry 16 players on guaranteed deals. The cap sheet is heavy. The needs are not.

Two positions sit in red ink on the whiteboard: power forward and backup center. One month out from training camp, they don’t have the flexibility to chase both aggressively. So the question in El Segundo is simple: where do they get the most bang for their last few bullets?

Backup center becomes the pressure point

The logic tilts toward shoring up the backup 5.

Walker Kessler, the new starting anchor acquired from the Utah Jazz in a blockbuster sign-and-trade in July, played only five games last season. Betting everything on his health and durability would be reckless. They need insurance behind him, a big who can stabilize second units and cover them if Kessler’s body doesn’t cooperate.

Price reports that the Lakers have already circled two names: Milwaukee Bucks center Jericho Sims and Chicago Bulls big man Jalen Smith.

It’s not a glamorous list. It’s a realistic one.

The big-man market is thin, and the Lakers’ leverage is thinner. As Price notes, demand for quality centers is high, supply is low, and Los Angeles has little in the way of trade capital. That combination forces them into a narrow lane: hunting for players stuck deeper in other teams’ rotations and hoping one of them can pop in purple and gold.

A bare cupboard of assets

The constraints are stark.

The Lakers’ draft chest is almost empty. They control their own 2033 second-round pick. They hold a pair of second-rounders from the Washington Wizards in 2031 and 2032, picked up in the Deandre Ayton-for-Jaden Hardy swap. The only first-rounder they can outright move in a deal is in 2032.

After that, it’s mostly contract mechanics and maybe-expiring deals. Players like Hardy and Dalton Knecht could become expiring trade pieces if their team options for 2027-28 are declined. Those are tools, but not the kind that pry loose cornerstone bigs.

So the front office is fishing in a very specific pond: teams with surplus size, players slotted as third bigs, and contracts that won’t send the Lakers crashing through the apron.

That’s where Sims and Smith enter the frame.

Jericho Sims: a vertical threat for a Doncic-led attack

Dan Woike of The Athletic reported last month that the Lakers are monitoring both Sims and Smith. Price adds that Sims, 27, could be on the move in Milwaukee, which makes him a plausible target.

On paper, Sims fits a clear vision.

Woike described him as the type of “run-and-jump” big you want around Luka Doncic. He’s big, explosive, and lives above the rim. In Milwaukee, he’s penciled in as the Bucks’ No. 3 center behind Myles Turner and Kel’el Ware. That kind of depth chart can make a player accessible for the right price.

Scouts do have reservations. They question Sims’ defense away from the basket and his ability to produce consistently. He’s not a polished post hub or a switch-everything stopper.

But he is a lob catcher, a dunker, a rebounder. For a team that could dangle second-round capital and needs a vertical spacer and energy big behind Kessler, that profile is exactly the kind of calculated gamble that makes sense.

Jalen Smith: motor, shooting, and a price tag

Smith, 26, offers something different.

He’s smaller for a center at 6-foot-8, but he brings a relentless motor and, as Woike noted, has turned himself into a “pretty good” outside shooter. That combination of energy and spacing has earned him admirers inside the Lakers’ organization.

Stretch bigs who play hard and hit shots don’t usually come cheap. Smith doesn’t either.

He has one year left on his deal at $9.5 million, a number that matters for a team tiptoeing around the apron. That salary, paired with his size limitations, complicates the fit. He’s not the classic rim-protecting backup 5, and he’s not a bargain-bin flyer.

There’s also the question of availability. The previous Bulls regime liked him, according to Woike, which throws some doubt on how eager Chicago will be to move him, or what it would cost to change their mind.

A tight squeeze with real stakes

This is where the Lakers find themselves: hard-capped, short on picks, carrying 16 guaranteed contracts, and still hunting for a frontcourt piece that can’t just be “good enough on paper.” It has to work in real minutes, in real games, behind a starting center with an injury history and alongside a heliocentric star in Doncic.

Sims offers bounce, rim pressure, and a likely cheaper acquisition cost. Smith offers shooting, energy, and a trickier financial puzzle.

The Lakers don’t have the luxury of waiting forever. Training camp is coming. Kessler’s workload needs managing. The West isn’t slowing down for anyone.

With so few moves left on the board, which big man becomes the one they’re willing to stake a season of frontcourt depth on?