Offseason Trade Packages for Los Angeles Lakers After Round 1 Loss to Denver Nuggets | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Jackson Reed
Published Mar 24, 2026
The Deal: LeBron James and Jarred Vanderbilt for Chris Paul, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, a 2026 first-round pick, a 2028 first-round pick and a 2029 first-round pick swap
Let's get weird here.
The other side of the "Lakers can talk themselves into thinking they're close to a title" is the fact that they've been in the play-in tournament in each of the last two seasons, missed the playoffs altogether in 2022 and are eight months shy of LeBron's 40th birthday. Trading him seems almost inconceivable, but there's at least a reasonable argument for L.A. to start over.
This past February, the Golden State Warriors reached out to the Lakers about acquiring James, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Those talks went nowhere at the time, but they could reopen that line of communication this summer with Chris Paul's expiring contract, Andrew Wiggins' deal (he's owed about half of what LeBron makes), a high-upside forward in Jonathan Kuminga and draft capital.
L.A. might insist on also getting Brandin Podziemski, but that starts to feel a little risky for the Warriors, whose already-old roster would suddenly feature a near-40-year-old LeBron.
The foundation of this deal at least makes sense. The Lakers could kick off a rebuild with more high-upside draft assets (given the ages of Stephen Curry and LeBron) and at least one young player with star potential.
Meanwhile, Golden State would have the two faces of this generation in the same lineup. Both are past their primes, but they played at an All-NBA level this season. It's not hard to see how their games would mesh, especially if LeBron keeps shooting like he did in 2023-24, when he made a career-high 41.0 percent of his threes.
That duo could have a two-man game like Curry and Draymond Green's turned up to 11.
Though the Warriors' potential contention window wouldn't be open for long, it'd be wide open if both James and Curry played like they did in 2023-24.
