Lakers ‘retrofit’ offseason plan around Luka Doncic will be a lot different than last year’s

The Lakers have several priorities entering another pivotal offseason. 

But Rob Pelinka, the franchise’s president of basketball operations and general manager, made it clear what the top priority is: Building a roster that best fits and complements superstar guard Luka Doncic.

Doncic reestablished himself as one of the league’s best players in 2025-26, which ended with the Lakers getting swept in the second round by the Thunder. For Doncic, his season concluded with a left hamstring strain that he suffered on April 2 — and forced him to the miss the entire postseason.  

Doncic is coming off winning the league’s scoring title for the second time in three seasons and finishing fourth in the voting for league MVP, which Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won for the second consecutive season. 

The Lakers are planning to build their roster around Luka Doncic again. NBAE via Getty Images

He signed a three-year, $160.4 million contract extension last August (which kicks in next season with a $49.5 million salary for 2026-27, $53.5 million for 2027-28 with a $57.4 million player option for 2028-29), which cemented Doncic as the face and centerpiece of the franchise. 

And with Doncic being the focal point of the Lakers’ present and future, there will be an “ongoing collaborative process” when it comes to building out the roster ahead of next season, according to Pelinka. 

“The archetype of the roster that we want is going to be retrofitted around Luka and the things he needs,” Pelinka said. “Clearly he’s that leader and that player for the future that we want to build the right way around.”

If that sounds familiar…well, that’s because it should. 

Pelinka made very similar comments after the 2024-25 season ended, just a couple of months after the Lakers shockingly traded for Doncic. 

President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka of the Los Angeles Lakers speaks to the media during a press conference at UCLA Health Training Center on May 12, 2026 in El Segundo, California. Getty Images

“When you make a seismic trade at the deadline, your roster and the building around it, it’s kind of like trying to build an airplane in the sky – now we get a chance to land that plane, put it in the hangar, and really figure out the parts of it that we need to retrofit and change,” Pelinka said on May 1, 2025. “That’s what we’ll do.”

Pelinka added at the time: “It’s incredibly exciting to have the promise of [Doncic] in our next decade of Laker basketball with being able to build a team around him and him being at the center of our franchise.”

Over the course of the next few months after those comments from Pelinka, the Lakers re-signed Jaxson Hayes, signed Jake LaRavia to a two-year contract and signed Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart to two-year deals (player options for 2026-27) off of the buyout market. 

They waived Shake Milton and Jordan Goodwin, while Dorian Finney-Smith left for the Rockets and Markieff Morris remained an unrestricted free agent after not signing with a team.

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All were important moves for the Lakers to win their first playoff series in three years. But not enough for the Lakers to be true contenders.

So what’s the difference between this offseason and last offseason for the Lakers? 

It starts with the resources they’ll have to build out the rest of the roster.

Depending on the decisions Austin Reaves, Ayton and Smart make with their player options, and what’s done with their own free agents (LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard, Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber), the Lakers could have around $47 million in cap space this offseason, according to ESPN. 

This is a lot different compared to last season, when their main resources of adding players were with salary cap exceptions. 

And on draft night, they’ll have the chance to trade up to three of their own first-round picks (No. 25 for 2026, 2031 pick and 2033 pick). 

“Having the optimality to roster plan and roster build, there’s several ways to do it: There’s in the draft, there’s through trades where some teams are going to be trying to get off good players in this harsh system and then there’s through free agency,” Pelinka said. “”We do have the optionality to look at all those different avenues to get better.”

The Lakers’ increased resources doesn’t mean there will be a complete roster turnaround. 

Ayton and Smart not only have a certain level of control over their futures, but they were also players Doncic recruited last summer. Hayes and Doncic share an agent (Bill Duffy of WME). The Lakers value the shooting Kennard and Hachimura bring, especially surrounding Doncic. 

That’s before even getting into the seismic decisions for James and Reaves.

But the priority remains building a roster better fitted for Doncic. And this will be the Lakers’ best chance to do so since they traded for him.