It would be disingenuous to claim this is Max Kellerman’s hottest take. But telling the Los Angeles Lakers to trade Luka Dončić is still a hot one.
Kellerman recently launched his new podcast Game Over with co-host Rich Paul for The Ringer. And based on recent headlines, it seems like they’re interested in breaking up the Lakers.
Paul sparked a firestorm earlier this week when he suggested the Lakers trade Austin Reaves to the Memphis Grizzlies for Jaren Jackson Jr. The trade proposal garnered more attention than when most radio, TV or podcast hosts craft a fantasy trade because Paul is the longtime agent for Reaves’ Lakers teammate LeBron James.
In the aftermath, the Lakers reportedly did not love Paul floating the idea of trading Reaves. LeBron similarly distanced himself from the trade proposal and Paul’s podcast with Kellerman. But if the LeBron and the Lakers don’t want to trade Austin Reaves, Kellerman has another idea: trade Luka Dončić.
Max Kellerman says the Lakers should consider trading Luka
“If you wanna win a championship, I believe that your best player needs to…at least play team defense. … Luka and Austin are redundant. I can get x for Austin. I can get 3x for Luka.”pic.twitter.com/u62vwDR5hy
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) January 15, 2026
“If I were the Lakers, I would give serious consideration to moving Luka,” Kellerman claimed. “If you want to win a championship, I believe that your best player needs to be someone who is willing to at least play team defense…If your best player isn’t that, very hard to win a championship. There’s a world in which if you’re really trying to win a championship and you’re the Lakers — Luka and Austin are redundant — I can get x for Austin, I can get 3x for Luka.”
That’s right, the person who predicted Tom Brady was primed to fall off a cliff back in 2016, and stated he wanted Andre Iguodala shooting the basketball in a big spot over Steph Curry, now wants the Lakers to trade Luka Dončić. Maybe this was Kellerman just trying to deflect attention away from Rich Paul as he fields criticism for being an agent and crafting trade proposals on his podcast.
There are probably only two people who believe the Lakers should try to trade Luka Dončić: Max Kellerman and Nico Harrison. But if the best argument for trading a superstar player is that you can get the biggest return for them, then no team would ever keep their best player. And championship teams never seem to be built by trading a top-5 player away.