The Los Angeles Lakers need a couple more serviceable players in order to become true championship contenders next season. Most agree they need a starting-level center and some improved guard and wing depth.
While they don’t necessarily need another star, there are some Lakers fans who want the team to swing for the fences. In particular, they want the team to make a real attempt to land Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP who is rumored to want the Milwaukee Bucks to trade him.
It was reported on Monday that Antetokounmpo is open-minded as far as whether he would be better off remaining with the Bucks or going to another team. On ESPN’s “Get Up,” Brian Windhorst talked about the likelihood of the Lakers being able to land the “Greek Freak.”
“Could the Lakers make an offer?” Windhorst said about a potential trade. “Yes. Could Giannis come in and say, ‘I am going nowhere but the Lakers’? Yes. And if that happens, that would increase it. But I don’t think the Lakers or the [New York] Knicks could make an offer that’s in the top five or six. But because Giannis potentially has agency in this, then you would say that his words would matter a lot.”
Obviously, if Antetokounmpo does formally request a trade, he will have many suitors. The Lakers only have one future first-round draft pick to offer in a trade and a limited number of players who could be seen as attractive on the market, so it is pretty safe to say they wouldn’t be able to put together the strongest offer.
He has a player option for the 2027-28 season and therefore cannot become a free agent until the summer of 2027, so he likely won’t have any real leverage if he asks to be traded soon. That means he wouldn’t have any real control over where he is sent, unless the Bucks are fully willing to accommodate him.
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