The Lakers enter training camp with a roster that looks thinner on star power but deeper in usable talent, after an offseason that saw the team part ways with roughly half of last season’s 53-win group while adding nine new players around superstar guard Luka Doncic and star guard Austin Reaves.
Gone are LeBron James, the league’s all-time leading scorer, along with Rui Hachimura, Marcus Smart, Deandre Ayton, Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard. That group was central to the Lakers’ regular-season success and to a first-round playoff series win over the Rockets last season, a series the team won even with Doncic and Reaves sidelined for stretches.
In their place, the Lakers acquired center Walker Kessler from the Jazz to serve as the rim-protecting, rim-running big man that fits alongside Doncic’s playmaking style. They also added Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle and Ziarie Williams, among others.
Coach JJ Redick had identified dribbling, passing and shooting as areas the team needed to upgrade. Grimes, Mamukelashvili and Sexton are expected to help address those needs, while Thybulle and Williams are seen as contributors to improved perimeter defense.
Kessler’s arrival is also expected to anchor a defense the team hopes will be stronger than last season’s. And while the Lakers lost two of their best three-point shooters in Hachimura and Kennard, the team says it retains ample shooting around Doncic and Reaves and has added shooting at the big-man positions through Kessler and Mamukelashvili — a change that could make it easier to keep athletic, less shooting-reliant forwards like Jarred Vanderbilt and Adou Thiero on the floor.
The net effect, according to the team’s offseason planning, is a roster that goes from roughly ten trustworthy rotation players last season to at least twelve who could credibly see minutes on a given night.
Questions remain about whether the moves will pay off over a full season, and whether the top-end talent behind Doncic and Reaves can replicate what James provided in 2025-26. But by the measure of rotation depth and complementary skills, the Lakers’ 2026-27 roster is built to go deeper than the one that finished last season.
