After the Los Angeles Lakers were knocked out in the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs, they should be looking at any and all ways to improve their roster around forward LeBron James and guard Luka Doncic.
The Lakers were embarrassed against a lower seed in the opening round of the playoffs, as they were eliminated in just five games by the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves.
Lakers insider Jovan Buha has identified one player he’d like to see the storied franchise pony up some assets for this offseason. He said that Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins would “check a lot of boxes” for the Lakers with his skill set.
“I like that trade,” Buha said of a hypothetical deal that would send Lakers forward Rui Hachimura to the Heat for Wiggins. “I know Wiggins has been a popular guy for Lakers Twitter. He is someone that — I think among the realistic options — he is someone that would check a lot of boxes for the Lakers.”
It’s worth noting that if the Lakers were to acquire Wiggins, whether or not he would stay around in Los Angeles for any significant period of time is still unclear. After all, after he gets paid more than $28 million in the 2025-26 season, he has a player option for the 2026-27 campaign and could enter unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2026.
Wiggins played with two teams in the Golden State Warriors and Heat in the 2024-25 campaign. He started the season out in Golden State but was dealt to Miami midway through the season as part of the deal that sent forward Jimmy Butler to the Warriors.
In 60 combined contests with the Warriors and Heat, he averaged 18.0 points 4.5 rebounds, 1.0 steal and 0.8 blocks per game. The talented two-way player spaced the floor behind the 3-point line on offense while providing stingy play on the defensive end.
The question of whether it would be worthwhile for the Lakers to part ways with a player of Hachimura’s caliber for Wiggins is up for debate, though. Hachimura provided the Lakers with a steady scoring hand at the forward position last season, as he averaged 13.1 points per game on 50.9 percent shooting from the field and 41.3 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
Wiggins might not be a player that would put the Lakers over the hump in the Western Conference against teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Timberwolves, but his two-way style of play makes him an intriguing trade target for Los Angeles in the offseason.