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One year ago, the seats at the bar and the tables near the coffee shop inside the Marriott Marquis hotel and the seats and concourse in the adjoining Wintrust Arena were filled with people wondering what in the hell was going to be next for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The team had fired its coach, Darvin Ham, after a second consecutive playoff loss to Denver and rumors were everywhere that the team had zeroed in on broadcaster JJ Redick. At the same time, LeBron James, his wife Savannah and their security team filed into the stands to watch Bronny James try to earn a spot in the NBA draft.

They were an inescapable topic of conversation, their position at the center of the NBA’s universe certainly annoying to the other 29 teams but inarguable.

This year, though, under those same roofs, the Lakers haven’t been the main event. They took their turn in the spotlight earlier this year when they traded for Luka Doncic. They’ve got their coach in Redick and Rob Pelinka has a promotion and a contract extension.

By NBA standards, they’re operating fairly status quo.

This week at the NBA draft combine in Chicago, people have buzzed about the 2025 draft class led by Duke’s Cooper Flagg, the kind of sure-thing prospect that eliminates any suspense. Winning the lottery, termed by multiple people as an “all-time” crazy one, could help undo some of the goodwill the Mavericks surrendered when they dealt Doncic to the Lakers.

Read more:Will the Lakers try to trade Austin Reaves? Not so fast

There’s been a lot of speculation about Giannis Antetokounmpo and his future in Milwaukee and where Kevin Durant will land, assuming his time in Phoenix is over. People have started to speculate how Boston will approach a season without Jayson Tatum and the ripple effects of that.

But it’s the Lakers and something will eventually break through.

When people have wanted to gossip, they’ve pointed to the Lakers’ strength and conditioning job posting that somehow carried an ESPN segment on “Get Up” earlier this week. (According to people with knowledge of the situation, the team routinely posts jobs like this on LinkedIn and TeamWork online and did so last summer when they were hiring an assistant strength and conditioning coach.)

The method of the job posting, more than anything else, caught some people in Chicago off-guard — “We’d never post a job like that,” one rival team executive said — most people have lost the general thread, which is the Lakers trying to reimagine their strength and conditioning program.

The Lakers and strength coach Ed Streit parted ways last week, people with knowledge of the situation told The Times. Streit, a well-liked presence in the organization, joined the team in 2019 as an assistant strength coach and earned a promotion in 2021.

Following the season, though, Redick said he felt the team needed to be in “championship shape” next season. The Lakers’ two biggest stars, like most, work with their own strength and medical teams. Whoever joins the Lakers’ staff will be leaned on to help the rest of the roster, most notably Austin Reaves, who is set for free agency next summer and in line for a massive raise.

A new voice around the weight room could jolt the team as it tries to get to a different level with conditioning.

Read more:Lakers moving forward: What we learned from the exit interviews

People, including the Lakers’ scouts and executives here in Chicago, have openly spoke about the team’s needs at the center position — an obvious priority for Pelinka and Redick.

The team has shown no interest in using Reaves in a trade that nets them anything less than a top-tier big, and there really aren’t any of those available, with the two most common names linked to them in the earliest stages of the offseason — Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton and Dallas’ Daniel Gafford.

Neither is a lock for a variety of reasons.

In Claxton, the Lakers would have the prototypical rim-protecting, lob-catching center that’s tailor-made for Doncic. Claxton's due more than $66 million over the next three seasons and is two years removed from his most impactful stretch as a pro when he averaged 12.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks on a league-best 70.5% shooting from the field. This season in 70 games, those numbers dipped to 10.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks with 56.3% shooting.

An optimistic read on the situation would point to the Nets’ losing as a reason for his dip in production. A pessimist would point to his narrow frame (just 215 pounds), the two straight years in which his numbers have slumped and the high salary.

Gafford, we know, is a surefire Doncic fit because of their time together in Dallas. He’s about to enter the final year of his deal and plays on a roster with Dereck Lively and Anthony Davis, making it unlikely that there’s more cash headed his way from the Mavericks.

The trouble, of course, is that people around the NBA wonder how it would look if Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison engaged Pelinka and the Lakers on another trade after the last deal between the teams was so unpopular that it caused protests.

According to rival scouts and executives, the Lakers best’ assets (minus Reaves) are their 2031 first-round pick, second year wing Dalton Knecht and a bunch of expiring contracts. Some combination of them would be a must in any deal the team would make for a center.

The free-agency options, like the in-season trade options, are considered to be pretty lean. Indiana center Myles Turner is set to be a free agent, but he was already out of the Lakers’ price range before the Pacers' current run to the Eastern Conference finals. Brook Lopez is 37 and already had a one-year stint with the Lakers before leaving to play his best basketball elsewhere. Clint Capela could be an option depending on how the market reacts, but there are questions around the league about whether he’s still a full-time starter.

Jaxson Hayes, who started for the Lakers this season, is also a free agent, but the Lakers clearly had their doubts with him when they decided to bench him in the playoffs. You can assume that some bridges would need to be rebuilt if that were an option.

Another possibility or two could develop on draft night depending on how teams value this group of young bigs. A player such as Duke’s Khaman Maluach could be viewed as too good to pass up even if a team has a center on the roster, and that could create an opportunity for a player to unexpectedly hit the trade market.

Otherwise, the Lakers are looking for what every team in the NBA is looking for — versatility, toughness, athleticism and shooting.

Those markets are slowly starting to develop behind the scenes as agents meet with teams and as teams build out their offseason free-agency boards now that lottery has been settled.

The Lakers are working on all of this too. Just this time, it’s not what everyone is talking about.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Why Jonathan Kuminga's Warriors contract situation interests Charles Barkley originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors have a lot of roster work to do this summer, but their biggest to-do item is figuring out if Jonathan Kuminga still fits or if it’s time to move on from the 22-year-old forward.

Kuminga was out of Steve Kerr’s rotation at the end of the regular season and into the NBA playoffs, but burst back onto the scene after Steph Curry sustained a Grade 1 left hamstring strain in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Following the Warriors’ season-ending Game 5 loss to the Timberwolves on Wednesday night, TNT’s Charles Barkley addressed Kuminga’s situation.

“Man, the Kuminga thing is interesting, because the three old guys are making a lot of money, so you’re pretty much stuck with them for the next two years,” Barkley said on “Inside the NBA.” “The Kuminga thing, we’re in the back and we’re like ‘Damn. He either plays or he doesn’t play.’ But now you’ve got to make a decision. You’ve got to make a decision whether to pay him or not.”

Co-host Kenny Smith interjected, referencing the Warriors and Kuminga failing to agree to a contract extension before the 2024-25 season began.

“Well, they made their decision,” Smith said. “They didn’t extend him and they don’t play him when Steph is there. Meaning, his contribution, they don’t feel helps when Steph is there. They’ve said it.”

Barkley, a long-time Warriors detractor, made the case that Kuminga helped balance the roster that features a 37-year-old Curry, and Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler, both 35 years old.

“And I’m going to disagree with you,” Barkley said to Smith. “He’s the only one on that bench that’s explosive and you can’t go to war with three old guys against the West. Like, he was the only guy out there, when you said, he can play with these Minnesota Timberwolves guys. But he’s a restricted free agent … I don’t want to make a comment because they know him better than we do. They didn’t extend him when all the other rookies got extended. So it tells me they don’t believe in him.”

Kuminga is a restricted free agent, so he can sign an offer sheet from another team and the Warriors have the right to match. Or they can work out a sign-and-trade with another team, giving the 2021 No. 7 overall draft pick a fresh start elsewhere.

But Kuminga showed his immense talent during several stretches this season. In 15 games from Dec. 3 to Jan. 4, he averaged 20.4 points on 48.2 percent shooting from the field. In back-to-back games on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28, he scored 34 points off the bench.

Then a severe ankle injury sidelined him for two months, and when Kuminga returned, Jimmy Butler was in the fold and took most of the minutes at power forward.

In his final 15 regular-season games, Kuminga averaged just 12.2 points and fell out of favor with Kerr, to the point that he wasn’t in the first-round rotation against the Houston Rockets.

Kerr had no choice but to turn to Kuminga when Curry went down with the hamstring strain, and the young forward stepped up, averaging 24.3 points in the final four games against the Timberwolves.

Kuminga’s performance in the Western Conference semifinals likely served as an audition for prospective teams, and if the Warriors decide a sign-and-trade is the best route, his potential could be tantalizing to rival general managers.

“I don’t know how those things go,” Kuminga told reporters during his end-of-season availability on Thursday at Chase Center. “I’ll learn more going through the summer. It don’t really matter. I’m going to let my agent handle things like that. I’ll just listen to what he’ll tell me.

“I just tell him to take his time. I’m going to take my time too, figure out what I’m going to do with my day because I’m bored.”

Barkley often isn’t spot-on regarding the Warriors, but concerning the Kuminga situation, he hit the nail on the head.

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Warriors can make Giannis trade but won't win bidding war, Brian Windhorst says originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Brace yourself for another offseason of Giannis Antetokounmpo-to-the-Warriors trade rumors.

The Milwaukee Bucks star reportedly is “open-minded” about the possibility of exploring moving on from the only NBA franchise he has known, and teams will start lining up to make a run at the two-time NBA MVP if he decides he wants out.

ESPN NBA analyst Brian Windhorst believes there is a pathway to the Warriors acquiring Antetokounmpo but there’s a big BUT involved in any hypothetical trade.

“Yes, there is a package that the Warriors could use,” Windhorst said on “Get Up” on Friday morning. “They have some future draft picks. They have interesting young players. Like last year, Brandon Podziemski was off limits. Who knows if that’s going to be the case this year? But they can’t win a bidding war.

“First off, I just want to say Giannis has not let it be known he certainly wants out of Milwaukee, so I do not think we should assume that. If we do reach that point where Giannis was going to look around, he will have agency in this. He has two years left on his contract. The Bucks don’t have to listen to him. But if he were to come to Milwaukee and say, I want to play with Steph [Curry], there could be a deal worked out. The same would apply, in my view, to the [New York] Knicks or [Los Angeles Lakers], if he says I want to be a Knicks, send me to New York or I want to be a Laker. These are big ifs. Those trades can get worked out. But if it’s just an open market, none of those three teams, in my opinion, could win a bidding war with the Bucks.”

As “Get Up” host Mike Greenberg and analysts Chiney Ogwumike and Jay Williams discussed how Antetokounmpo’s Warriors fit and how the 30-year-old might convey to the Bucks where he wants to go, Windhorst doubled down on his earlier statement.

“If you’re asking, can the Warriors get Giannis?” Windhorst said. “The answer is yes. But, and it’s the but that is going to be a big thing that’s going to define this offseason.”

The Warriors have been linked to Antetokounmpo in previous offseasons, but nothing ever came close to materializing.

Now, with Curry’s NBA title window closing, the Warriors might be inclined to push for Antetokounmpo to get the four-time NBA champion a fifth ring.

As Windhorst alluded to, other NBA teams have more coveted trade assets to send to the Bucks. But if Antetokounmpo tells Milwaukee he only wants to go to the Warriors, the sides must try to work out a deal.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks noted that the Warriors have four tradeable future first-round draft picks in 2026, 2028, 2030 (if picks 1 through 20) and 2032, and Golden State can offer first-round pick swaps in any of the next seven years.

To make the money work, the Warriors almost assuredly would have to include Draymond Green or Jimmy Butler in an Antetokounmpo trade, but Golden State publicly is committing to the core of Curry, Green and Butler.

Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy will have plenty of conversations over the next month leading up to the start of NBA free agency, and things certainly can change.

The Warriors can get a seat at Antetokounmpo’s trade table, but it sounds like he would have to pick them for the sides to finally unite.

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Nikola Jokic scored 29 points and recorded 14 rebounds as the Denver Nuggets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 119-107 to force a decisive seventh game in their Western Conference semi-final series.

Denver headed into Thursday's match 3-2 down in the series after squandering late leads in games five and six, but fought back after half-time to earn a trip to Oklahoma City for Game seven on Sunday, 18 May at 14:30 local time (20:30 BST).

"To win that [fourth] quarter, after what's happened the last two games, says a lot of our guys and the fact that they can bounce back from anything - I keep saying that," said Denver interim coach David Adelman. "We just keep finding our way."

Jamal Murray shook off an illness to produce 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, while Christian Braun added 23 points and 11 rebounds, and Julian Strawther came off the bench to score 15 points, his postseason career high.

The Nuggets needed a seventh game to eliminate the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points for the Thunder, who ended the regular season top of the Western Conference with a 68-14 record.

Chet Holmgren wound up with 19 points and 11 rebounds, and Luguentz Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace scored 10 points apiece.

The Minnesota Timberwolves await either Denver or Oklahoma City in the Western Conference final - last year they defeated the Nuggets in game seven of the Western Conference semi-finals.