Jim Alexander: Now the real intrigue begins for the Lakers

LOS ANGELES — So what happens now?

The Lakers left their home court on Monday night swept out of the playoffs for the second time in four seasons, though after getting drilled in the first three games by the Oklahoma City Thunder — and beaten handily in six of the teams’ first seven meetings, including losses of 25, 29, 43 and 36 points – they put up a fight this time and took the defending champions down to the wire before losing, 115-110.

The positive spin would be that they played ’em close, but it doesn’t matter. The scoreboard doesn’t lie, and it told us that the Lakers’ summer has arrived.

Would a healthy Luka Doncic have made a difference? Probably not. The 16-2 run the Lakers peeled off in March was tantalizing, and was interrupted when Doncic and Austin Reaves got hurt in the same game at OKC on April 2. Being at full strength might have enabled them to avoid the Thunder until the Western Conference finals, but even during the regular season these Lakers couldn’t figure out the defending champs.

So now comes the intriguing part. Seven players have decisions to make. LeBron James (who had a $52.6 million cap hit in 2025-26 according to Spotrac), Rui Hachimura ($18.2 million), Maxi Kleber ($11 million), Jaxson Hayes ($3.4 million) and Luke Kennard ($11 million) are all unrestricted free agents. Austin Reaves ($13.9 million this past season, $14.8 million in 2026-27), Deandre Ayton ($8.1 million both this past season and next) and Marcus Smart ($5.134 million in ’25-26, $5.39 million in ’26-27), all have player options.

Keep all of ’em? Keep some of ’em? Use those tradeable first-round draft picks (this year, 2031 and ’33) and freed cap room to make a run at Milwaukee’s 31-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer?

From here, the latter is not advisable. This is Luka’s team, and it was even before he got hurt. To create a true championship contender, they need to surround their star(s) with complementary players instead, and one of them had better be Hachimura. (We’ll explain.)

Antetokounmpo played 36 games this season because of injuries, carries cap hits of $58.4 million and $62.7 million the next two seasons, and the odds are won’t age nearly as well as, um, LeBron James. If you’ve already handed the keys to Doncic, does that combination really make sense?

But this is the Lakers’ perennial dilemma in seeking that 18th championship banner: The slow, patient rebuild will never fly here. It’s for other teams in other places, like Washington and Indiana, Brooklyn and Memphis and Utah.

And, um, Oklahoma City. That team’s basketball boss, Sam Presti, should be sending gifts to the Clippers’ Lawrence Frank on a regular basis, since the 2019 Paul George trade provided the Thunder with enough future draft picks — the last one coming this June at No. 12 — to stock a champion.

In El Segundo, where the Lakers’ (soon to be bigger) basketball staff conducts its business, tanking is for losers.

“It’s not the Lakers way,” President of Basketball Operations and GM Rob Pelinka told reporters on Tuesday morning at the annual postseason news conference. “We have to find sustained excellence so it does create, at times, a thread the needle where you gotta find a way to have championship rosters every year.

“I will say that the hardest thing to do to get to that point is to have a young, transformative player that can carry you in the playoffs all the way to a championship,” he added. “That’s the hardest thing to get. You can lose five years in a row and get five top five picks and come out of it without that player. It’s really hard.”

Or you can trade for one, and he took care of that by acquiring Doncic in the middle of last season. Come to think of it, maybe Pelinka should be sending periodic fruit baskets to former Dallas GM Nico Harrison.

Off the court, there are signs of progress with the infrastructure of an organization that, especially in the seasons following the death of owner Jerry Buss, resembled the little store on the corner in a world of modern basketball operations.

The purchase of majority ownership by Dodgers owner Mark Walter means, among other things, that the teams are sharing brainpower and ideas. Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has had some conversations with Pelinka in an advisory role, while former Dodgers general manager and current special advisor Farhan Zaidi has taken on a more active role in the Lakers’ transition to modernity.

Even before the sale, these organizations shared the same DNA, one Los Angeles fans have gotten very used to: It is exclusively about winning and nothing else, as it should be.

Pelinka also noted during Tuesday’s news conference that the move of the Lakers’ G-League franchise from the El Segundo facility to Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert has freed up space that the big club will use toward that modernization. For example, biomechanics and recovery labs will become part of the Lakers’ facility.

The best part: Those sorts of things aren’t subject to the salary cap. The stuff that does is subject to the normal amount of should they or shouldn’t they chatter, which in some cases has already begun.

Do they unlock the vault for a max-level contract for Reaves, for example? And do they — should they — welcome back James for a 24th NBA season and his ninth as a Laker. (The vote here is yes to both, and I understand perfectly that certain segments of the fan base still grouse that LeBron isn’t a real Laker, whatever that is.)

LeBron indicated after Monday night’s game that he’ll sit down with his wife, his daughter and younger son Bryce in pondering whether to come back for a 24th season and if so where. He didn’t mention his oldest son and teammate Bronny, but he’s probably already heard that opinion.

“I have no clue; I’m not going to lie to you,” Bronny said after Monday night’s game when asked what his dad might be thinking. “He looks like he can play another however many years, but he’s been in league for longer than he’s been out of league. It’s insane. I think he should think about it, and whatever he feels happy with, do that.”

And while it’s Luka’s team when he’s healthy, I suspect it’s still LeBron’s locker room.

Hachimura, who has become a serious 3-point threat — and should be in line for a more lucrative deal — was talking after Monday’s game about how he’s had a greater sense of his role with this team, and how when he got here in January of 2023 assistant coach Phil Handy convinced him that his outside shot could make an impact.

“Honestly, I don’t like shooting threes,” he said. “That’s not my thing. For me, I don’t really like it. But with the team situation … I said it was a different game for me, but I had to do it.”

Just then, Hachimura noticed James walking into the interview room.

“I’m done,” he said.