As one key rotation piece prepares an exit, the Los Angeles Lakers are interested in some of the top centers in free agency with an eye toward a top-tier long-term partner for Luka Don\u010di\u0107 in the future.<\/p>\n
The Lakers are bracing to lose forward Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency to a multi-year deal with the Houston Rockets, according to team sources. The loss of a valuable wing \u2014 and a beloved teammate of Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s \u2014 will create a void on the perimeter. However, Finney-Smith\u2019s exit will open up a pathway for the Lakers to be aggressive in targeting the top available centers in free agency.<\/p>\n
Armed with the $14.1 million mid-level exception, the Lakers are expected to chase Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez and the Atlanta Hawks\u2019 Clint Capela, with the surprise addition of Portland Trail Blazers center Deandre Ayton as another target on their list. The Lakers are not making calls gauging Austin Reaves\u2019 trade value, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n
As free agency begins, the Lakers are motivated not to sacrifice long-term flexibility as they begin to arm themselves for a potential run at another superstar to pair with Don\u010di\u0107 as soon as next summer.<\/p>\n
Reaves, who turned down a nearly $90 million extension last week, is viewed as a key piece alongside Don\u010di\u0107, the star the team is building around in the present and future.<\/p>\n
Sunday, LeBron James opted into the final year of his contract with the Lakers, but The Athletic\u2019s Sam Amick reported the team and James didn\u2019t discuss any additional years beyond next season.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Brook Lopez: Stacy Revere \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As one key rotation piece prepares an exit, the Los Angeles Lakers are interested in some of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":27589,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3119,3136,3141,3130,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-27588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-houston-rockets","10":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114773321720021099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}