Lakers Prioritizing Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves Over LeBron James: Report

The Los Angeles Lakers are putting young star guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves ahead of 21-time All-NBA power forward LeBron James, per a new report.

Doncic, 26, and Reaves, 27, have far more NBA life in front of them than the 40-year-old James, who has been the league's oldest active player for the past two seasons.

Hierarchically, James ranks above Reaves in terms of his on-court ability. But his age and mileage and cost appear to be giving Los Angeles' front office pause when it comes to even short-term team building.

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According to Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron, L.A. is looking to build around both young players going forward, and the team could take or leave James once he reaches unrestricted free agency next summer.

"The Lakers are more or less married to their current roster for the next two years, with the biggest factor being LeBron James. They could bring him back on a one-year maximum-level contract in 2026-27 as they wait out their cap space plans. But Doncic and Reaves are the two priorities in their quest for a star."

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Two stars Los Angeles could be targeting, Gozlan suggests, are a pair of former MVPs.

Three-time MVP Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and two-time MVP Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo could both decline their player options for 2027-28 and enter unrestricted free agency that summer, when the Lakers could potentially have maximum cap room — depending on what they do in 2026.

"The fascinating aspect of the 2026 cap space possibility is that the Lakers could use Reaves’s small $26.5 million cap hold as a placeholder to maximize their space, then go over the cap to re-sign him," Gozlan explains. "That won’t be the case for 2027 since he’ll already be re-signed. That makes projecting 2027 cap space tricky since it requires an estimate for his salary."

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