The Lakers could have the opportunity to do a hard reset within the next two years if these are, indeed, LeBron James final years in the NBA.
The Lakers are nudged right up against the NBA’s second apron after re-signing LeBron James to a two-year deal this offseason. That means they’ll be able to aggregate contracts in any midseason trades they pursue, but they can’t take back more salary in a trade than they send out.
The Lakers’ financial outlook isn’t much better in 2025-26. If they don’t re-sign D’Angelo Russell, they should have access to the $5.7 million taxpayer mid-level exception, but they’ll be well over the $154.7 million salary cap if James picks up his $52.6 million player option.
If James decides to retire after the 2025-26 season, though, the Lakers could be in position to make a major free-agent splash that summer.
As of now, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt and Max Christie are the only three Lakers players who are under guaranteed contract beyond 2025-26. Austin Reaves has a $14.9 million player option that he figures to decline, while the Lakers will have team options on Jalen Hood-Schifino ($6.2 million), Dalton Knecht ($4.2 million) and Maxwell Lewis ($2.4 million). Less than $1.3 million of Bronny James’ $2.3 million salary for the 2026-27 season is fully guaranteed, too.
If the salary cap increases by the full 10 percent that it’s allowed to jump over each of the next two seasons, it would be roughly $170.1 million in 2026-27. Davis ($58.5 million), Vanderbilt ($12.4 million) and Christie ($8.3 million) will combine to earn around $79.2 million that season. Remove everyone else from their books and add in nine incomplete roster charges ($1.4 million each), and the Lakers could have more than $77 million in cap space during the 2026 offseason.
That’s the absolute best-case scenario in terms of cap space, but it’s highly unlikely. To reach that figure, the Lakers would have to turn down the team options on Hood-Schifino, Knecht and Lewis, waive Bronny, and allow Reaves to walk as a free agent. But if they do go that route, they could sign someone to a full 35 percent max contract starting at $59.5 million and still have nearly $19 million in cap space left over.
Here’s the exciting part: They don’t have to go full scorched-earth to still have access to max or near-max money. Much like the Philadelphia 76ers did with Tyrese Maxey this offseason, the Lakers could use Austin Reaves’ below-market cap hold to their advantage.
As long as Reaves’ $13.9 million salary in 2025-26 is above the league’s average salary that season — and it should be — his free-agent cap hold will be only $20.9 million. The Lakers could keep that on their books and still have nearly $57.6 million in cap space if they turn down their options on Hood-Schifino, Knecht, Lewis and waive Bronny. They could have almost $54.8 million if they pick up Knecht’s option as well. Once they spent their cap space, they could re-sign Reaves to anything up to a max deal via his Bird rights.
Regardless of whether they picked up their option on Knecht, the Lakers wouldn’t quite have enough cap space to offer a max contract to someone with 10-plus years of NBA experience if they keep Reaves’ cap hold on their books. They would have enough for either the 25 percent max ($42.5 million) or the 30 percent max ($51.0 million), though.
There are plenty of potential options in that range who could become free agents in 2026, including Luka Doncic (player option), Trae Young (player option), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and De’Aaron Fox.
Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer recently reported that the Lakers “have their sights set” on Doncic to lead their post-LeBron future. However, after making an All-NBA team in each of the past two seasons, he’s now eligible to sign a five-year supermax deal worth a projected $345.3 million with the Dallas Mavericks next offseason.
The Lakers could offer him no more than a four-year, $219.4 million contract as a free agent in 2026. Fresh off a Finals run in Dallas, it’s hard to imagine him turning down an extra $126 million next summer for a chance to sign with the Lakers two years from now. The same goes for SGA in OKC.
The list of high-end 2026 free-agent targets dries up quickly after Doncic, Young, SGA and Fox. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Jimmy Butler and Damian Lillard will all be too old to build around long-term, and the Lakers couldn’t afford their respective maxes while keeping Reaves’ cap hold on their books. Joel Embiid is too injury-prone, and there’d be no sense in burning their other max cap spot on a second big man.
Two years is an eternity in the NBA, though. There’s no telling who might be available by then.
The Lakers also wouldn’t necessarily have to spend that cap space in free agency. They could always use it to acquire a second star via trade, too. As long as they stay under the cap after the trade is complete, they wouldn’t have to worry about salary-matching rules. That’s a gigantic advantage in this new CBA era.
The Lakers won’t have the flexibility to make major changes to their roster as long as LeBron remains on the team. But they could have a major window of opportunity in the 2026 offseason to begin shaping their post-LeBron future after the 2025-26 campaign.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
You can follow Bryan on Twitter at @btoporek.
