The backup-center idea Lakers fans like most right now is Milwaukee’s Kel’el Ware. Jovan Buha made the case on his show this week: “I would for sure give up the [pick] swap plus a second or two [second-round picks], and I would for sure give up the three seconds.” It is a sound read on what the Lakers need. It is also a price Milwaukee has already turned down, in effect, on a much lesser player.
The need is obvious. Wednesday’s 103-87 win over the LA Clippers put the Lakers at 4-1, and Kevon Looney’s slow start has made the minutes behind Walker Kessler the roster’s weak spot. Wanting Ware is not the mistake. Thinking he is available at that price is.
Milwaukee Has No Reason to Sell Ware
The Bucks’ position has not changed since they got him. When the Lakers’ interest first came up in June, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that Milwaukee liked Ware in the 2024 draft and plans to keep him. Ware was one of the main young pieces Milwaukee got back for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and a rebuilding team keeps exactly that kind of player.
Nothing since then gives the Bucks a reason to sell. Ware is 22 and a 2024 first-round pick. Basketball-Reference puts his 2026-27 salary at $4,654,920 and his 2027-28 salary at $7,135,992, with nothing on the books after that, so Milwaukee controls a starting-caliber young center cheaply for two more seasons before he reaches free agency.
Jericho Sims Set the Price
The Lakers have already tested Milwaukee’s prices this fall. Fischer reported that talks built around Dalton Knecht and Jericho Sims were derailed by Milwaukee’s intent to extract two future second-round picks and the Lakers’ insistence on parting with only one. That deal died over a single pick, and Sims is not even a regular in the Bucks’ rotation.
The math follows from there. If Milwaukee would not take Knecht plus one second for a backup big, it will not give up its best young center for a pick swap and some seconds. Buha’s package is the Sims offer with a bit added, and Ware is worth far more than Sims.
The Kessler Trade Emptied the Drawer
The Lakers cannot raise the offer, because they already spent their picks. Getting Kessler cost them unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and first-round swaps in 2028 and 2030. Brett Siegel wrote afterward that “the Lakers now have no tradeable first-round draft picks over the next 7 years after this sign-and-trade for Walker Kessler.”
That leaves second-rounders and, depending on who is counting, a single swap. A team that spent every first it had on one center has nothing left that would change Milwaukee’s mind on another.
The Calendar Does Not Help Either
On salary, a deal could be done today. Jaden Hardy came over by trade in July, and a player acquired by trade carries no signing-related trade restriction, so he can be dealt now. Salary was never the problem.
December 15 will not help. Under the collective bargaining agreement, a player who signs as a free agent becomes trade-eligible on the later of three months after signing or Dec. 15, which this summer means Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton and Sandro Mamukelashvili. Those players are the reason the Lakers are 4-1. Grimes and Sexton combined for 44 points on Wednesday. Trading them for a backup center would move the hole rather than fill it.
One constraint the Lakers do carry: Hoops Rumors lists them as hard-capped at the first apron, $209,015,000, because they acquired Kessler by sign-and-trade. That ceiling limits how much salary they can take back in any deal, though on a Ware trade the pick price binds first.
Go Back to Sims
The realistic move is the one the Lakers already walked away from: Sims, at the price Milwaukee named. Two second-rounders for a lob threat behind Kessler is a lot to pay for a backup. It still costs far less than a Ware deal would, and it is actually available.
Hardy’s tradable salary lets them do it without breaking up the rotation. If Milwaukee has moved on from Sims, Buha has also mentioned cheaper names, including Moussa Cissé and Jalen Smith, whose price Chicago has no reason to lower, who fill the same role. Either way the Lakers end up paying two seconds for a backup. Ware was never going to be one of the options.
Sources: Jovan Buha of Buha’s Block; Jake Fischer of The Stein Line; Brett Siegel. Contract figures via Basketball-Reference; hard-cap status via Hoops Rumors.
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