{"id":609166,"date":"2026-02-18T04:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609166\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T04:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T04:30:15","slug":"lakers-have-privately-discussed-going-after-several-two-way-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/609166\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers have privately discussed going after several two-way wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer will be a very important one for the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> when it comes to their quest to become championship contenders again. They’re projected to have roughly $50 million of salary cap space, and they should have a prime opportunity to truly build a team that will complement new franchise player Luka Doncic.<\/p>\n

They can either push all their chips in the middle and go after Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, or they can use their resources to bring in a couple of very solid non-stars who would considerably move the needle. The Lakers’ biggest need is one or two athletic two-way players at the wing or forward spots, and it appears they’re very aware of that need.<\/p>\n

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According to an ESPN report<\/a> by Dave McMenamin, the franchise has discussed going after Andrew Wiggins, Peyton Watson and Tari Eason this summer, and there are also a few other players on their radar.<\/p>\n

“An unrestricted free agent who has been discussed internally, sources told ESPN, is Andrew Wiggins, but he has a player option with Miami he could exercise. Tobias Harris, Quentin Grimes and Dean Wade are other players who fit that profile.<\/p>\n

“The Lakers have also privately discussed restricted free agents Tari Eason and Peyton Watson, sources told ESPN, and could land the latter if Denver, which already has $215 million in salary committed to returning players for next season, doesn’t match the offer sheet.”<\/p>\n

Los Angeles was already very interested in trading for Wiggins this past summer, but the Miami Heat<\/a> reportedly demanded too much in return. He is averaging 15.9 points and shooting 47.1% from the field and 39.5% from 3-point range this season, and he has a reputation as a plus defender.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Wiggins (he will turn 31 later this month) won an NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors in 2022.<\/p>\n

Eason, who is 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds and can play both forward spots, is averaging 12.2 points and 6.1 rebounds in 25.4 minutes a game for the Houston Rockets, and he’s making 46% of his 3-point attempts. Watson has blossomed this season for the Denver Nuggets<\/a> and is putting up 14.9 points per game while shooting 49.6% overall and 41.7% from downtown. He’s originally from the Southland and spent one year at the University of California, Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

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Eason and Watson, however, will be restricted free agents, so landing them won’t be easy and could require a bit of an overpay.<\/p>\n

In terms of backcourt options, Grimes could be an interesting one. He started to show promise as a member of the New York Knicks a few years ago, and the 6-foot-4 guard has become a key member of a strong Philadelphia 76ers backcourt rotation.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Lakers have privately discussed going after several two-way wings<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This summer will be a very important one for the Los Angeles Lakers when it comes to their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,500,7,15938,5759,301,187,130,123,164,194,251,150,368,295,189,121,6,191,1146,678,207,3817,4155,873,933],"class_list":{"0":"post-609166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-76ers","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-andrew-wiggins","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-championship-contenders","12":"tag-dean-wade","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-espn","16":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","17":"tag-golden-state-warriors","18":"tag-houston-rockets","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","21":"tag-luka-doncic","22":"tag-miami","23":"tag-miami-heat","24":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-new-york-knicks","27":"tag-peyton-watson","28":"tag-philadelphia","29":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","30":"tag-philadelphia76ers","31":"tag-quentin-grimes","32":"tag-tari-eason","33":"tag-tobias-harris"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116089757969722098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609166","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=609166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}