Most NBA teams finalize roster cuts on Saturday. The Lakers are carrying 16 guaranteed contracts and have 15 spots, which means somebody is getting moved or somebody is getting paid to leave.
Los Angeles would prefer the first option. Jake Fischer reported Friday that the Lakers have discussed sending Dalton Knecht plus second-round draft capital to Milwaukee for center Jericho Sims, and that sources were pessimistic the deal gets done.
Read that last part again before anyone treats this as a trade. Nothing has been agreed. No team has commented. The pick specifics have not been reported.
Why the Lakers want it
Two reasons, and neither is about Jericho Sims being good.
First, trading Knecht gets Los Angeles to 15 without eating part of his salary in a waiver. Second, the Lakers want center depth behind Walker Kessler and Kevon Looney, and Sims is a center with a pulse and a small number.
Knecht is 25, the 17th pick in 2024, and last season played 54 games with one start, averaging 4.2 points and 1.4 rebounds in 10.2 minutes while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 34.2 percent from three. The Lakers exercised his team option, reportedly at $4.2 million.
Sims is 27, acquired by Milwaukee from the Knicks at the 2025 deadline in the Khris Middleton trade, and exercised a $2.8 million player option in June. He averaged 5.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 67 games while shooting 78.4 percent from the field.
That is the deal: a 25-year-old wing who cannot crack a rotation for a 27-year-old backup center who makes less money. Lakers insider Jovan Buha described the likely shape of any Knecht move as a consolidation trade, which is the polite framing.
The Lakers made this bed in July
Sixteen guaranteed contracts is not bad luck. Los Angeles added Kessler via sign-and-trade from Utah on July 8 and Looney from New Orleans on July 13, then brought in Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Ziaire Williams and Sandro Mamukelashvili. Deandre Ayton went to Washington. LeBron James left for Philadelphia.
You cannot sign that many players and then act surprised that the math does not work in October.
Milwaukee and Memphis are shopping too
The Bucks, who are openly rebuilding after trading Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to Miami in July, also have Caris LeVert and Kevin Porter Jr. available. LeVert, 32, averaged 7.4 points in 60 games. Porter, 26, averaged 17.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists in 38 games before a season-ending knee injury. Milwaukee wants to keep Pete Nance and would rather trade guaranteed money than waive it.
Memphis is shopping GG Jackson II, 21, who averaged 12.5 points in 55 games with 28 starts, and Walter Clayton Jr., 23, who averaged 7.8 points and 4.0 assists in 69 rookie games. Micah Peavy, 25, is the Grizzlies player most at risk of being waived without a deal. Charlotte, meanwhile, is weighing the locker-room value of keeping Pat Connaughton.
None of this is glamorous. All of it is the actual October business of the NBA: three or four front offices trying to turn a player nobody wants into a player somebody else does not want, because the alternative is writing a check for nothing.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.