After losing in the first round of the 2025 Western Conference playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers will enter the offseason with some question marks about their roster moving forward.
Whether it be due to LeBron James only getting older and possibly retiring in the near future, or the lack of athletic players around Luka Doncic, the Lakers have to get busy.
The most obvious need is a center. In a recent trade proposal from Bailey Bassett of Clutch Points, the Lakers would land one in the form of Nikola Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls, who is coming off a very good season.
His proposal would move on from Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber, and a 2031 first-round pick, which would be lottery-protected.
“One of the centers most frequently mentioned as a trade candidate is Nikola Vucevic. The Bulls are headed in a new direction, as they’ve already parted ways with DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine in the last year. Vucevic is likely the next to go. The two-time All-Star is not necessarily the perfect fit in Los Angeles because the team could use more defense and rim protection from their starting center, but the Lakers might have to take what they can get.
“Even with his lack of defense and a statistical drop-off since his days in Orlando, Vucevic is still a very good center. He has scored more than 16 points per game in each season since 2016-17. Vucevic is also coming off of his best season shooting the ball, as the Montenegrin shot 40.2% from deep this year. Surrounding playmaking aficionados like Doncic and James with shooters is always smart,” he wrote.
Why Vucevic Makes Sense
Vucevic has been at the center of trade talks over the past few years, and the Los Angeles Lakers make perfect sense for him.
He only has one more year on his deal, so if it didn’t work out well for the Lakers, they could move on from him.
The veteran All-Star is coming off an 18.5 points per game season, shooting 40.2% from 3-point range on 4.4 attempts.
Can Lakers Find Perfect Center?
The Los Angeles Lakers shouldn’t expect to find a perfect center to pair with Doncic, given their limited assets. Perhaps another team will bail them out like the Dallas Mavericks did with the Doncic trade, but the Lakers aren’t exactly in a perfect position to make a blockbuster deal.
However, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Lakers’ need for a center to pair with Doncic is clear, and he’s reportedly looking to find an athletic one to give him a lob threat.
“One of the biggest issues for the Lakers in their first-round loss to the Timberwolves was the lack of a playable center. Jaxson Hayes, who emerged in January as the Lakers’ starting center after Davis got injured and was traded, struggled to stay out of foul trouble and impact games in the playoffs against Minnesota’s size and physicality.
“When Dončić and Pelinka met in the days after the trade, Dončić told him that he likes playing with a vertical lob threat – similar to Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford in Dallas – and believes that’s the key to unlocking his offensive potential,” he wrote.
Unfortunately, Vucevic wouldn’t be that, but he’d bring other things to the Lakers that they didn’t have during the 2024-25 season.
