Luka Dončić knew his hamstring was hurt. Same for Austin Reaves and a muscle along his ribs. It was April 2, late in the season, and both had suffered injuries in the first half of a game.
They could have sat out. The Los Angeles Lakers were down 31 at halftime to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, after all.
Instead, both players told Lakers medical staff that they wanted to play and rejoined the team for the second half.
In what would turn out to be the most pivotal decision of the Lakers’ season, Dončić and Reaves gambled — a bet that would cost Dončić the remainder of the season and playoffs, and Reaves all but the end of the playoffs. They did so because both thought the Lakers could come back from such a massive deficit and win.
That’s how much they believed.
That confidence stemmed from a tough conversation in the month prior.
Coach JJ Redick had spoken with Dončić, Reaves and LeBron James. He’d laid out the vision. For the team to hit its peak, James would have to step back. Reaves would have to move forward. And Dončić would need to take control.
Asking the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, a player still impossibly effective at 41 years old, to change his game was a delicate moment. In his meetings with Dončić and Reaves, Redick repeatedly discussed “empathy,” team sources said. While James publicly would say he’d do whatever necessary to help the Lakers win, the team’s stakeholders were still unsure about how he’d handle the new hierarchy. Making this work, they thought, would be difficult.
The adjustment, though, went better than anyone could’ve expected. James bent his game around the Lakers’ backcourt, and the team tore through March like one of the best teams in the league, led by a surging MVP candidate in Dončić.
The Lakers went 15-2 in March, with a top-10 leaguewide ranking on both ends of the floor. Dončić averaged 37.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.4 assists and 2.3 steals. Reaves added 21.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.3 steals. And James morphed seamlessly into one of the best “role” players in the league: 18.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.3 steals on 56.2-percent shooting.
The Lakers were showing strong signs of being an elite trio. And James’ growing comfort level with his complementary role was the key.
For the first time all season, the Lakers believed they were good enough to play for a championship. They believed they were good enough to come back from 31 down against the mighty Thunder.
But in one April evening, the remaining trajectory of the Lakers’ season plummeted. March had been about believing; everything after would be about surviving.
Fittingly, the Thunder officially ended the Lakers’ season on Monday, after symbolically being there for “the end” earlier in the spring. They did so in four games without Jalen Williams — the gap between the two teams again bolded and highlighted, just as it had been as the Thunder built that big lead even when the Lakers’ stars were available and confident.
The Lakers finished 11 games behind the Thunder in the regular season. Then they finished the playoffs 64 points worse than them in a four-game sweep. Once again, the Thunder were too good — too versatile, too deep, too balanced.
“We just don’t have enough good players,” one locker room source lamented.
A month and a half ago, the Lakers thought they might be good enough. They were not. The Lakers now enter an offseason where they have to decide how close they actually are.
“That’s what we have to figure out this offseason,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said after the Lakers were eliminated.
They’ll have a roster full of free agents, highlighted by James and Reaves. They’ll have, for the first time since trading for him, the means to start truly building the perfect roster for Dončić. They’ll have to decide how — or if — a soon-to-be 42-year-old James fits in those schematics. (That is, if James doesn’t choose to retire this offseason; of that decision, he said “I don’t know what the future holds for me” and that he will be “processing over the next couple weeks” following Monday’s loss.)
And they’ll have to balance change against the success they’ve already built — all in a Western Conference where they just saw how far they need to go to be among the league’s very best.
Closing that gap is now the organization’s priority; how and when they’ll be able to do it is less clear.
The Lakers’ 2025-26 season, in most measurable ways, was an unquestioned success. Despite some bad injury luck, the team exceeded its preseason win-total projections for the second straight year. Their 53 wins were the most since the 2010-11 season, excluding the COVID-shortened championship season in 2019-20. They continued building an identity of toughness and resiliency under Redick. He won his first playoff series.
And yet, according to team and league sources, running it back with a mostly similar roster isn’t a palatable option. James is an unrestricted free agent. Reaves will be one when he declines his player option. Both have played their way into big contracts, and retaining both could keep the Lakers from fully evolving into a roster built around Dončić.
The promises made to Dončić and his representatives before he signed an extension with the Lakers weren’t to have one good month. And they weren’t to undertake a slow build, to count on marginal improvements built by continuity and internal growth. The plans were bigger.
Those promises were to give him a locker room full of his type of players, to find him replicants, if not improvements, of the balanced roster he made a finals run with in Dallas in 2024 before the stunning trade that sent him west.
“The Lakers are on the clock,” one league source said.
Those priorities remain, according to league sources. There is a desire for better center play, true lob threats who mimic the skills of Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II (with cleaner injury histories). There is a desire for true two-way defensive players, wings with athleticism and energy on the defensive end and a sweet shooting stroke on the offensive side of the ball. And there’s a desire to lock in a long-term secondary playmaker next to Dončić.
Reaves, who will decline his player option and become an unrestricted free agent after the season, is the most logical fit for that role. The best teams built around Dončić have had complementary guards (Jalen Brunson, Kyrie Irving) who could take on playmaking duties for long stretches independently and play off the ball with him.
Luka Dončić wants Austin Reaves to stay. Rival execs believe Reaves could command $40 million a year. (William Liang / Imagn Images)
Dončić has made it clear to the Lakers that he would like to continue playing with Reaves, according to league sources. Beyond their close friendship, Dončić believes in Reaves as a long-term piece next to him. Multiple league sources said that belief was best illustrated when Dončić told people within the organization that he wouldn’t want Reaves included in any potential trade packages for Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo. Dončić, those sources say, would strongly prefer a team construction that includes him and Reaves alongside whatever star the Lakers could acquire.
The Lakers are expected to explore Antetokounmpo trade scenarios this summer.
Dončić has had regular contact with new Lakers owner Mark Walter and has been impressed with the level of communication, league sources said. Dončić has also mentioned how well he thought the Lakers played in March when the team went 15-2.
Of course, trading for a star without including Reaves would significantly complicate any negotiations. The Lakers have access to just three first-round picks, one second-round pick, swaps and few younger players with significant value in league circles.
All of this, of course, is contingent on the Lakers and Reaves coming together on a deal. While team and league sources believe that the Lakers and Reaves will eventually land on a contract that makes sense, the door for Reaves to walk is open should he get a big offer elsewhere. Rival executives predicted Reaves could command $40 million a season due to a combination of his play, his age and, perhaps most importantly, a free-agent class completely devoid of players as productive as him in their prime. At present, the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets, who both have needs at the guard position, are the only teams with the sort of salary-cap space available to meet that sort of financial mark. Other teams that are known to have some interest in Reaves — like Utah and Atlanta, per league sources — would need to make roster moves to find the necessary space. League sources say winning will be a significant factor in Reaves’ thinking.
Over the last two seasons, Reaves has averaged 21.5 points, 5.7 assists and 4.6 rebounds. The only other players to average those numbers while playing in at least 100 games are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokić, Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Cade Cunningham, LaMelo Ball, Dončić and James. The question on the Lakers’ side of the boardroom table is where they see Reaves’ price point in relation to their larger roster goals. Per high-ranking team sources, the commitment to roster balance will guide their process.
Reaves is not the only free-agency decision the Lakers face. The more complicated one involves James.
Even at 41 and in his NBA-record 23rd season, James showed that he’s still a winning basketball player. After sitting the first 14 games of the season with a nerve issue, he missed consecutive games just one more time all year, right before his role change in March. He earned another All-Star selection, and any questions about his willingness to sacrifice and support younger players for the good of winning quickly got silenced.
The conundrum, should James want to continue playing, will be his salary. His annual paydays, miraculously, have gone up each of the 23 years he’s played in the league, a streak that will almost certainly end if he signs a new contract this summer. How much that number declines will depend at least somewhat on how much change the Lakers can cook up.
Both James and the Lakers, according to team and league sources, have interest in continuing their partnership (Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss have both said they hope James’ career ends with the Lakers). But Golden State and Cleveland could try to lure the NBA’s all-time leading scorer in an effort to win now – especially if James senses the Lakers are set on moving on in a different direction without him.
Team sources still believe there are avenues for the roster to improve substantially if the Lakers retain both James and Reaves this summer, no matter how narrow those pathways might appear.
“This season obviously didn’t end how we wanted,” Dončić said Monday after the Lakers were eliminated. “But I feel like the last push we made in the end of the regular season, we thought we were gonna compete for a championship. I think we had a great team, we had great chemistry, and obviously playing with AR and Bron, it’s an unbelievable experience. They are two great players and it was really fun to share the court with them.”
Should James leave, the Lakers could have close to $50 million in cap space if they renounced their Bird rights to James and Rui Hachimura. That number could increase if Deandre Ayton or Marcus Smart decline their player options.
Hachimura could be a priority for the Lakers. The 28-year-old is widely believed to want to stay with the Lakers. He shot 44.3 percent from 3-point range this season and is well-liked inside the locker room. Luke Kennard’s addition at the trade deadline also coincided with the best Lakers basketball of the season, highlighting the need for shooting around Dončić.
The Lakers could try to chase restricted free agents Peyton Watson or Tari Eason, though both carry injury issues. Centers Walker Kessler and Jalen Duren are widely expected to return to their current teams. Mitchell Robinson and Robert Williams III are both unrestricted free agents the Lakers could target, along with re-signing Jaxson Hayes.
Ayton, who certainly played to his $8.1 million contract this season, had a strong first-round series against Houston All-Star Alperen Şengün. He could opt out to try to find a bigger payday with the Lakers or elsewhere. Smart, whom Dončić recruited in free agency, could opt out of his deal and seek a longer-term contract. The Lakers have interest in retaining him.
The 2026 free-agency class, though, isn’t regarded as strong, especially if you’re the Lakers and looking for change. James and Reaves are two of the very best in the class.
Will the trio of Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves get another chance together? (Photo by Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)
Team and league sources have said they expect the Lakers to be aggressive on the trade market. The franchise can move its 2031 and 2033 first-round picks in addition to the No. 25 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. The Lakers have expressed interest in New Orleans wings Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones in the past, though New Orleans has yet to signal whether either is truly available.
Still, there’s internal confidence that pathways toward an optimized roster for Dončić will reveal themselves.
Dončić didn’t play again after suffering his hamstring injury. While an MRI conducted in Dallas originally showed a Grade 2 lower hamstring strain, further medical evaluation in Spain showed a deeper and more severe hamstring injury, according to a league source.
He’s already begun the same strict offseason diet he undertook to transform his body last summer and is currently pain-free in the hamstring, positive signs for his long-term health.
The expectation is that he won’t be limited in his offseason preparation for next year, the Lakers’ top priority in a good position to lead whatever roster the Lakers put alongside him.
Figuring out how the Lakers would navigate the complexities of their offseason would be much easier if past behaviors were the top predictor. But a lot with the organization has changed since the last time it had these many options.
While the Lakers look at ways to change their roster, the organization has already begun to shapeshift after the team was sold at a $10 billion valuation from the Buss family to Walter. The team replaced longtime business president Tim Harris with Lon Rosen and has quickly tried to establish new revenue streams like adding a row of courtside seats on both baselines and selling seats in the lower bowl previously used by media.
The decision to move the South Bay Lakers from the Lakers’ practice facility to the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs should also be a financial win for the team, though it could negatively impact basketball operations. According to league and team sources, the opportunity to practice in the Lakers’ facility in front of team coaches and executives was a persuasive recruiting tool.
The Lakers will also likely lose the ability for rehabbing veteran players to easily practice with the G League team. Earlier this season, James’ final steps before his season debut came in practices with the Lakers’ G League team. And, according to team sources, the decision to award Drew Timme a two-way contract was a direct result of those practices, when he impressed James.
As part of the move, a handful of team employees responsible for G League business operations were laid off.
The added revenue, league sources believe, will be used in part to fund a growing infrastructure in personnel, scouting and medical departments. Pelinka is expected to add at least one assistant general manager while building out a pro scouting department that the Lakers haven’t had since parting ways with pro personnel man Ryan West in 2019.
In addition to any new hires, the Lakers will continue their integration with the Dodgers and Los Angeles Sparks. Pelinka has had multiple meetings with Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. And Dodgers special advisor Farhan Zaidi has been a visible presence at the team’s practice facility and games.
Mimicking their pro sports sibling is obviously a good plan. Despite the differences in spending rules, the Dodgers player development has been superb, and its business has become an international juggernaut while the team has played in five of the last nine World Series championships, winning three.
The speed in which they can elevate, a word the Lakers used to serve as their 2026 playoff moto, is of the essence. Windows in the NBA are slamming faster than ever, particularly with the Thunder and Spurs at the top of the conference. Navigating the complexities of building around Dončić while still honoring what worked over the past season won’t be easy. Difficult decisions undoubtedly will need to be made as the team truly transitions into a new era.
The stakes are high.
“I believe in continuity, but I do think that there’s — if you’re trying to win a championship with this organization, and listen, I’m trying to win a championship,” Redick said Monday. “I know (Pelinka’s) trying to win a championship. I know Jeannie (Buss) is, I know Mark (Walter) is. Like, we’re trying to win a championship. And so you have to be realistic and assess where you’re at. And we’re not good enough right now.”
Getting it right will be tough; getting it wrong easier than it might seem.
And if the Lakers can’t pull it off, there won’t be much empathy to be found from their foes.
