The Los Angeles Lakers find ways to make headlines, even during an NBA Finals in which they aren’t playing. Right now, it’s their coaching search. But very soon, it’ll be about their offseason personnel moves.

With LeBron James barreling toward age 40 and one of the weaker drafts in recent years on the horizon, the Lakers will need to turn to free agency and/or the trade market to improve the roster. Another star around James and Anthony Davis is an ideal outcome, but that player has to be a perfect fit if he’s going to vault L.A. into a position of legitimate competitiveness with the top teams in a loaded Western Conference.

Bill Simmons of The Ringer suggested a trade pitch that would allow the Lakers to acquire Dejounte Murray from the Atlanta Hawks, a team most analysts believe is likely to trade either Murray or Trae Young this summer.

“Doesn’t it make more sense for them to trade for Murray? Isn’t the price less? It’s a cheaper contract, ” Simmons said on the Monday, June 10 edition his self-titled podcast. “They could put the [Gabe Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt] contracts together. Their pick this year, they could draft a guy and then send him after. Their [2029] first-rounder, and they can do a swap in [2028] for Murray and be done with it — and keep the [2031 first-round pick] but not give up quite as much and get a guy on a cheaper deal.”

GettyAustin Reaves of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Perhaps even more important than Murray’s fit with the roster, both as a player and as an incoming salary, is that the Lakers would hold onto Austin Reaves in Simmons’ scenario.

Los Angeles signed Reaves to an attractive four-year deal worth just $54 million, which will keep him with the team for at least the next two campaigns at a more than reasonable number. The final year of Reaves’ contract is a player option in 2026-27.

Reaves was a crucial part of the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference Finals two years ago as probably the third-best player on the team. He was also a vital cog in the system last season, averaging nearly 16 points and 5.5 assists per night and appearing in all 82 games.

Any team talking star-level trades with L.A. this summer is liable to want Reaves back in the deal, but Simmons believes his presence is crucial if the Lakers hope to achieve real success.

“I’m not trading Reaves to get a third star, because I feel like I need four stars — not that Reaves is even a full star — but I think I need three stars plus Reaves to even think about competing with the top four in the West,” Simmons continued. “If Reaves is in the trade, I don’t see how there’s an upgrade when we’re in that Murray/Trae kind of class of guys. I don’t see how that works for them.”