{"id":39863,"date":"2025-05-17T20:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/39863\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T20:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T20:27:10","slug":"blockbuster-nba-trade-idea-pairs-luka-doncic-with-former-teammate-on-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/39863\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockbuster NBA Trade Idea Pairs Luka Doncic With Former Teammate on Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers need to acquire a center this offseason after playing without one in Game 5 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Head coach JJ Redick also didn’t play a center in the second half of Game 4.<\/p>\n

Despite having Luka Doncic, LeBron James and Austin Reaves and home-court advantage, the Lakers lost to the Timberwolves in five quick games.<\/p>\n

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Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka told local reporters during his end-of-the-season press conference that he will attempt to acquire a big man this summer. Pelinka traded for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams in February, but the trade was rescinded after Williams failed his physical with Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the Boston Celtics losing to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals in six games, one NBA analyst proposed that the Lakers and Celtics make a blockbuster trade this summer.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka DoncicJesse Johnson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report<\/a> proposed that the Lakers trade\u00a0Rui Hachimura, Maxi Kleber, a 2030 first-round pick swap and a 2032 first-round pick swap to the Celtics for\u00a0Kristaps Porzingis.<\/p>\n

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“And while the Porzingis\/Doncic duo didn’t quite jell with the Dallas Mavericks, both have likely been humbled a bit by the last few years. And chasing a title alongside James could have them more focused on that than on who gets the credit for the success,” Bailey wrote.<\/p>\n

“More to the point, the Lakers just need a real center. Porzingis provides shot blocking, floor spacing and the occasional post-up. And he’d be a dramatic upgrade over Jaxson Hayes.”<\/p>\n

Doncic and Porzingis were teammates on the Mavericks. If this trade idea happens, Redick could start Doncic, Reaves, Dorian-Finney Smith, James and Porzingis next season.<\/p>\n

Porzingis will make $30.7 million next season in the final year of his contract. He averaged 19.5 points and 6.8 rebounds for the Celtics this season while shooting\u00a041.2% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers Star Reportedly Recovering From ‘Serious’ Injury<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers need to acquire a center this offseason after playing without one in Game 5…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3782],"tags":[1013,7,75,473,149,1661,871,185,251,150,368,1011,3000,307,152,3954,6,191,3088,1012,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-39863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-dallas-mavericks","13":"tag-jj-redick","14":"tag-kristaps-porzingis","15":"tag-lebron-james","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","18":"tag-luka-doncic","19":"tag-mark-williams","20":"tag-maxi-kleber","21":"tag-minnesota","22":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","23":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-new-york-knicks","26":"tag-rob-pelinka","27":"tag-rui-hachimura","28":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114525061038821311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}