NBA

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka confirmed what most expected Thursday regarding his plans for the offseason.

According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Pelinka announced his intention to address the team's frontcourt concerns, saying: "One of our primary goals is going to be to add size in the frontcourt at the center position."

Pelinka's comments came one day after the Lakers were ousted in the first round of the NBA playoffs, falling 103-96 to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night, which knocked them out in five games.

L.A. started the season with a core of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves, but Pelinka shook things up in February when he pulled off one of the most shocking trades in recent NBA history.

He agreed to send Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick to the Dallas Mavericks for a package headlined by superstar guard Luka Dončić.

That arguably gave the Lakers two of the best players in the NBA between LeBron and Dončić, but it also left a huge hole in the frontcourt due to the departure of Davis.

AD is a future Hall of Famer and 10-time All-Star, and he is a huge reason why the Lakers won their most recent championship in 2020.

He missed significant time due to injuries throughout his Lakers tenure, but when he was healthy, Davis was a difference-maker and a matchup problem.

After the trade, Pelinka seemed to fully realize that another move was needed in order to replace some of what was lost with Davis, particularly on the defensive end.

That led to him agreeing to a trade that would have sent rookie guard Dalton Knecht and Cam Reddish to the Charlotte Hornets for center Mark Williams.

However, the trade was rescinded after Williams failed a physical, and since the trade deadline had passed by the time it happened, Pelinka was unable to pivot.

As a result, the Lakers entered the playoffs with a starting frontcourt of Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith, while Maxi Kleber, Jarred Vanderbilt, Jaxson Hayes and Alex Len came off the bench.

With Rudy Gobert, Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Julius Randle in featured roles, the T-Wolves had a huge size advantage over the Lakers, and it showed during their playoff series.

In Game 5 alone, Gobert dominated the Lakers to the tune of 24 rebounds and Minnesota won the rebounding battle 54-37 as a team.

If James decides to keep playing, he will return alongside Dončić and Reaves next season, giving the Lakers one of the best trios in the NBA.

However, it is clear that Pelinka realizes more effective frontcourt play is needed in order to give them a chance to go on a deep playoff run and vie for a title.

Having established himself as the face of the franchise three years after being selected with the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, Paolo Banchero is looking forward to receiving a long-term extension from the Orlando Magic.

Speaking to reporters at his end-of-season press conference on Thursday, Banchero said he's "happy" to be part of the Magic and looks forward to "hopefully spending a lot more years here."

Negotiations between Banchero's camp and the Magic should go fairly quickly, with them putting a max deal on the table and him agreeing to it.

ESPN's Bobby Marks noted a max extension for Banchero would be $247 million over five years. This does put the Magic in a bit of a financial bind because last offseason they maxed out Franz Wagner (five years, $224.2 million) and extended Jalen Suggs (five years, $150.5 million).

Even though Banchero's extension wouldn't kick in until the 2026-27 season, Marks did write the Magic are only $1 million under the second apron for 2025-26 when you add in their two incoming first-round rookie contracts.

They could clear roughly $24 million in cap space by turning down team options for Mo Wagner, Gary Harris, Cory Joseph and Caleb Houstan. They also have several contracts on the books between $8-15 million that could be used to facilitate trades.

One thing the Magic have to do this summer is find scoring help, particularly three-point shooting and a lead guard to run the offense. They haven't finished higher than 21st in offensive rating since the 2011-12 season.

Magic president Jeff Weltman said they will be pursuing "proven offensive help" this summer.

Banchero is the driving force for everything in Orlando right now, but the lack of help around him as limited the ceiling for the organization. He scored at least 29 points in each of the Magic's first four games against the Boston Celtics in the playoffs, yet the team only scored 100 points once in the series.

The Magic have lost in the first round each of the last seven times they have made the playoffs dating back to the 2010-11 season.

An oblique injury limited Banchero to 46 games in the regular season. He averaged a career-high 25.9 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest to help the Magic earn the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Starting the offseason sooner than anticipated, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka is going to do everything in his power to build a championship roster around LeBron James.

Speaking to reporters Thursday in the aftermath of the Lakers' 103-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 5 of their first-round series, Pelinka said they will do "whatever we can" to meet the roster expectations of the 40-year-old superstar next season.

Pelinka's comment is in response to James saying after Wednesday's season-ending loss that he wasn't sure "what the roster will look like next year besides the guys that [are] locked into contracts" (starts at 4:50 mark).

It is notable that Pelinka was speaking with confidence about James returning to the Lakers. He does have a $52.6 million player option for next season and talked about not knowing how much longer he will keep playing.

There's no indication that James would leave the Lakers if he were to become a free agent this summer. He even alluded to staying in L.A. while speaking to ESPN's Dave McMenamin on Wednesday night.

"Just continuing to play, I don't know where I'm at," James said. "That's what that is. Not coming back to play here. Just playing, period."

It's hard to find anyone who will believe James is going to retire this offseason coming off a terrific 2024-25 campaign, but there are a lot of big decisions facing the Lakers this summer.

In addition to possibly needing to extend James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves are eligible to sign new deals this summer. Dorian Finney-Smith is their highest-profile free agent, not including James.

Per ESPN's Bobby Marks, the Lakers will only have the $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception available, assuming James stays with the team. They will be able to aggregate contracts in trades since they are only into the first tax apron.

Depth and finding a starting center will be the two biggest priorities for Pelinka and the front office. The lack of both really played a huge difference in the series against the Timberwolves.

Jaxson Hayes, who has been the starting center since Anthony Davis was traded, didn't play at all on Wednesday and was on the court for fewer than 10 minutes in each of the first four games.

Head coach JJ Redick didn't trust his bench to the point he played his entire starting five all 24 minutes of the second half in Game 4.

If James is back with the Lakers, the hardest part of the job is done with him and Dončić as their top two players. Reaves really took off down the stretch this season playing alongside that duo.

The Lakers won 50 games this season with a roster that had significant turnover midway through the year and altered everything about how they play. This team could easily be a title contender in 2025-26.

The Los Angeles Lakers will have a long offseason after they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Which means they will have plenty of time to get in better shape.

"We have to get in championship shape," head coach JJ Redick told reporters Thursday. Redick did note that some players were in "phenomenal" shape despite stressing the need for the collective to improve their conditioning.

The Lakers' fourth-quarter struggles were a major talking point during their loss to the Timberwolves, and players improving their conditioning would help them take strides in that area in 2025-26.

Redick didn't make a single substitution in the second half of his team's Game 4 loss and became the first head coach to use the same five players for a full half of a postseason contest since such statistics were tracked starting in 1998.

That proved to be problematic, as the Purple and Gold were outscored 32-19 and shot 5-of-18 from the field in that fourth quarter.

Legs might have been a carryover issue in Wednesday's Game 5, as Minnesota held the Purple and Gold to an ugly 16 points in the fourth quarter when their season was on the line. Los Angeles still only lost the game by seven in part because the Timberwolves also struggled on the offensive end.

Minnesota shot 7-of-47 (14.9 percent) from deep but still managed to win.

The fourth-quarter issues were surely on the forefront of Redick's mind when he was talking about the need to improve conditioning Thursday, but it was also a topic of conversation surrounding Luka Dončić after the Dallas Mavericks traded him to the Lakers earlier this season.

ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported in February there was "significant frustration within the organization about Dončić's lack of discipline regarding his diet and conditioning, which team sources considered a major factor in his injury issues.

"Though Dončić was relatively lean by his standards when he reported to camp, his weight ballooned to the high 260s early this season, sources said," McMenamin wrote. "He sat out five games in late November, when the Mavericks listed him with a sprained right wrist, an extended absence to allow Dončić to focus on his conditioning. He had a similar early-season layoff in the 2022-23 season."

Redick didn't mention Dončić by name, but it wouldn't be surprising if the five-time All-Star was someone the head coach was thinking about when he made those comments.

Even as we work our way toward the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, the biggest story of this entire campaign may still be the internet-shattering trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a single future first-round pick.

And that story came roaring back to the forefront of the NBA world this week, when Luka's third-seeded Lakers were eliminated in the first round...in five games...by a Minnesota Timberwolves team they were heavily favored to beat.

Surely, somewhere, the Dallas Mavericks general manager who was lambasted for this move just about every day since the trade deadline unleashed a smile on Wednesday. For at least a moment, and at least in his own head, Nico Harrison was vindicated.

But how far outside the walls of Nico's home and internet memery does that vindication go? Was he, dare we say it, kind of right about Luka? Is "defense wins championships" more than a cliche and Harrison's favorite deflection?

Generally speaking, the answers to those questions can be summed up with a simple: No, Nico was not right. However, the Lakers' early flameout does mean that answer deserves an explanation.

First of all, Dončić went from a team tailor-made for him in Dallas to one that simply wasn't in L.A. In theory, having three All-Star level offensive players in Luka, LeBron James and Austin Reaves in the starting lineup should've led to a dynamic attack. But there's only one ball and it's possible to actually have too much playmaking if it comes at the expense of the rest of the roster.

The playoffs proved the Lakers needed at least one more finisher. Ideally, that player would've been a center. When we look back on this series, head coach JJ Redick's decision to shut down Jaxson Hayes will earn plenty of analysis, but the reality is that L.A. doesn't have a starting-caliber 5.

That doesn't make a ton of sense for any roster, but it's especially problematic for one with Dončić. Covering for his defensive shortcomings requires rim protection. The Lakers had almost none. Perhaps more importantly, having a rim runner makes Luka's pick-and-roll playmaking significantly more dangerous. Instead of having that lob connection, the Lakers spent the overwhelming majority of this series with Dončić, LeBron, Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith on the floor.

By Game 5, the Timberwolves were able to pummel that small-ball lineup (Rudy Gobert had 27 points, 24 rebounds and two blocks in the closeout effort).

It's hard to put all of that on Luka, who averaged 30.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists in this series, despite playing through an illness in one game and a back injury in another. L.A. was minus-6.1 points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor, but it was minus-16.8 without him.

More to the point, from the Lakers' perspective, the Luka trade was never entirely about this season, anyway.

A better showing in the first round may have been nice for fans, but the fact remains: L.A. swapped an injury-prone, post-prime AD who never had high-end playoff success before he joined LeBron for a pre-prime, constant triple-double threat with five First Team All-NBA nods and at least two playoff runs that lasted way longer than they should've.

With Davis, the Lakers were looking at a post-LeBron future mired in mediocrity and play-in berths. The runway with that wasn't very long, either. With Luka, they could be in the hunt for titles for the next decade.

The inverse is true for Dallas, which dramatically shortened its own window for contention, did so without negotiating with a single team other than L.A. and got way less than market value for one of the biggest young stars in the league.

The Mavs are still short on draft capital, too, thanks in large part to the moves they made over the last few years to build a Luka-centric roster. They don't have control of any of their first-rounders from 2028 through 2030.

And it's not like Dallas can sit around and gloat about L.A.'s early playoff exit. The Mavericks didn't even escape the play-in tournament. And their final loss there featured the unfortunate embarrassment of Davis, the supposed "prize" of the Luka trade, limping off the floor.

It's fair to point to the laundry list of injuries that came together after the trade, but L.A. falling short doesn't really change the fact that the Luka trade made Dallas worse in both the short and long terms.

And while the Lakers problems are pretty easy to identify—they need Dončić to get stay healthy, they need a starting center and they need a full offseason and training camp to put together a better offense for their new face of the franchise—the Mavs look destined to hover around the middle of the league for a while. And beyond that, who even knows?

With Luka, they would've been in the mix for the foreseeable future. With AD, Kyrie Irving and the current supporting cast, they may have to tip off a rebuild in the next couple years.

Does anybody really expect that losing in the first round of the NBA playoffs in five games will be LeBron James' last act in the NBA?

ESPN's Shams Charania reported Thursday on The Pat McAfee Show that his "understanding" is James will return for another season, perhaps by triggering his $52.6 million player option.

Not surprisingly, LeBron was noncommittal when asked about his future immediately after Los Angeles' series-ending 103-96 defeat to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

"I don't know," he told reporters. "I don't have an answer to that. Something I'll sit down with my family, my wife and my support group and kind of just talk through it and see what happens. And just have a conversation with myself on how long I want to continue to play."

Unlike last year, there isn't one tangible factor that points to a clear outcome regarding his playing status.

When James had long stated the goal of teaming up with son Bronny in the NBA, he wasn't going to walk away right as Bronny was entering the league. Now, it's at least a little easier to buy into the idea he could finally retire.

But the 21-time All-Star would be leaving a lot of money on the table. In addition, he continues to perform at a high level and should feel more optimistic about the Lakers' direction than he did at this same time last spring.

From the moment the trade happened, most could see Los Angeles shifted its timeline by swapping Anthony Davis for Luka Dončić. Dončić is six years younger than Davis, and more importantly, AD's departure exacerbated one of the team's biggest issues. L.A.'s lack of interior protection was exposed again and again by Minnesota.

Beyond having Dončić on the roster for a full season, general manager Rob Pelinka has all summer to find the center the Lakers desperately need, along with some athleticism on the wing.

Maybe James doesn't want to wait for reinforcements to arrive, or he's simply ready to hang it up after 22 seasons.

Based on Charania's report, though, King James isn't hanging up the crown just yet.

The Los Angeles Lakers are bound to have a busy offseason following their first-round exit from the 2025 NBA playoffs. Dealing guard Austin Reaves may not be part of those plans.

Immediately after Los Angeles' 103-96 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, The Athletic's Jovan Buha said he "would temper expectations" from fans who want to trade Reaves this summer.

"I don't think the Lakers will," he said. "As of my current intel, I don't think that's gonna happen."

Reaves would certainly have value to another team. He averaged 20.2 points and 5.8 assists and shot 37.7 percent from beyond the arc during the regular season.

The 26-year-old's $13.9 million salary is also a bargain for 2025-26, though he's only a year out from getting a much bigger payday because he can opt out in 2026.

There's no getting around the fact that Reaves didn't play well in the opening round; he admitted it. He averaged 16.2 points per game in the series and didn't perform up to the standard required to be a third star behind LeBron James and Luka Dončić.

It's probably safe to assume James and Dončić are the only two untouchable pieces on the roster. In the case of Reaves, a blockbuster trade for a marquee star would likely require his inclusion.

The choice general manager Rob Pelinka will have to make is whether a transaction of that magnitude is better than keeping Reaves and using draft assets and salary filler on smaller upgrades.