The one backup-center trade the Los Angeles Lakers can actually afford is Jaylin Williams, and they should still pass on it. Jake LaRavia’s $6,000,000 salary lets Los Angeles absorb Williams’s $7,774,648 with $4,475,352 of matching room to spare. What that buys is LaRavia’s 21.8 minutes a night traded away to upgrade Kevon Looney’s 7.3.
The idea belongs to Maxwell Ogden, who argued at Lake Show Life on Oct. 21 that Aday Mara’s rise has made Williams expendable in a crowded Oklahoma City Thunder frontcourt, and that “attaching draft compensation to a player like Jake LaRavia could at least get Oklahoma City on the phone.” The need he is answering is real. Side Eye Sports wrote on Thursday that Looney’s slow start has made the minutes behind Walker Kessler the roster’s weak spot.
The Money Is the Only Easy Part Here
Los Angeles carries a $201,332,759 payroll as of Oct. 29, per Basketball-Reference — $904,759 over the luxury tax line and $7,682,241 below the first apron, where Hoops Rumors lists the Lakers as hard-capped for acquiring Kessler by sign-and-trade.
That gap decides the trade, and it is the piece most people get backwards. A team at or above the first apron is held to dollar-for-dollar matching, and under that limit this deal would miss by $1,774,648. Below the apron, Hoops Rumors’ brackets let a team take back 200% of its outgoing salary plus $250,000 on anything up to $7,500,000 — $12,250,000 against LaRavia’s $6,000,000. Williams fits with $4,475,352 unused, and the Lakers land at $203,107,407, still $5,907,593 under their ceiling.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Out: Jake LaRavia | $6,000,000 |
| In: Jaylin Williams | $7,774,648 |
| Net salary change | +$1,774,648 |
| Lakers payroll before | $201,332,759 |
| Apron the Lakers are capped at | First, $209,015,000 |
| Room against that cap, after the deal | $5,907,593 |
| What makes the deal legal | Below the first apron, so 200% of outgoing salary plus $250,000 on outgoing up to $7,500,000 — a $12,250,000 ceiling on what Los Angeles can take back |
| Earliest date it could happen | now |
Oklahoma City Is Still Playing Jaylin Williams
Ogden’s premise is that Mara has pushed Williams out of the rotation. Through five games he has not. Williams is averaging 16.6 minutes a night for a 4-1 Thunder team, inside the crowded frontcourt Ogden describes — Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren, Mara and Williams — and that is not the usage of a buried reserve.
Oklahoma City is also one of five teams Hoops Rumors lists with no hard cap at all this season. A 4-1 roster under no salary pressure does not sell a rotation big in October, and second-round picks are what the Lakers have left to offer: the Kessler sign-and-trade emptied their first-round drawer for seven years.
Jake LaRavia Is Worth More Than the Hole He Would Fill
LaRavia is at 21.8 minutes, 4.3 points and 4.3 rebounds through four games. Looney is at 7.3 minutes, 2.0 and 2.0 through four. Trading the first to replace the second takes a rotation forward off a 4-1 team to fix the smallest set of minutes on the roster.
Williams would genuinely be the better version of those seven minutes. He shot 38.3% from three last season and averaged 5.5 rebounds in 19.6 minutes across 65 games, which is close to the shooting-and-rebounding profile the Lakers lack behind Kessler. He is also scoring 2.8 points a game through five this season. Five games settle nothing, but they are no argument for paying a premium.
What Oklahoma City Would Want Is Still Unreported
Ogden never names the picks, and no outlet has reported a Thunder asking price, so nobody can price this yet. Whether Oklahoma City would take the call at all is equally unreported, and a trade that needs a willing partner nobody has heard from is a proposal, not a market.
What is settled is the money. Los Angeles can do this trade today and stay nearly $5.9 million clear of its hard cap, which makes Williams a cleaner fit than Kel’el Ware ever was. Lakers trades this fall have died on picks and on partners — the Jericho Sims deal collapsed over a single second-round pick — never on matching salary. This one would die the same way, and finding that out costs them a 21-minute-a-night forward off a team winning without its best player.
Sources: Maxwell Ogden of Lake Show Life. Contract figures, payroll totals, rosters and stat lines via Basketball-Reference; cap, apron, hard-cap and salary-matching figures via Hoops Rumors. All figures as of Oct. 29, 2026; season stat lines cover five games or fewer.
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