{"id":57512,"date":"2025-05-01T02:18:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T02:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=57512"},"modified":"2025-05-01T02:18:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T02:18:34","slug":"shocking-lakers-predicted-to-land-nba-champion-as-starting-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=57512","title":{"rendered":"SHOCKING!! Lakers Predicted to Land NBA Champion as Starting Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2207584983.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" alt=\"jj redick\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Lakers\u2018 lack of size was severely exposed in the first-round playoff series against the Timberwolves. The franchise is expected to address those issues with the acquisition of a true center in the 2025 offseason.<\/p>\n<p>According to online sportsbook Bovada, Bucks big man Brook Lopez is the odds-on favorite to start the 2025-25 season as the Lakers\u2019 new starting center.<\/p>\n<div id=\"94f09908aa7c780622854816b606a8ed\" class=\"embed_container\">\n<div class=\"tweet-container\">\n<article class=\"tweet-container_article\">\n<div class=\"tweet-body\">Brook Lopez is the favorite to be the Lakers\u2019 starting center next season, per @BovadaOfficial<br \/>\n<em>Brook Lopez +250<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Nic Claxton +400<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Clint Capela +500<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Any 2025 Draft Pick +750<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Dereck Lively II +800<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Walker Kessler +1200<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Myles Turner +1400<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Nikola Vucevic +1600<\/em><br \/>\n<em>John Collins +1800<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"tweet-media tweet-media--1\">\n<div class=\"tweet-media__container\"><a class=\"tweet-media__img\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheDunkCentral\/status\/1916884971840487709\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow external\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"visible\" draggable=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GpokuG1X0AA5rVL.jpg?format=jpg&amp;name=small\" alt=\"Image\" data-lazy-load=\"\" data-src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GpokuG1X0AA5rVL.jpg?format=jpg&amp;name=small\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting that Lopez, 37, would likely be available for a veteran minimum salary, making him the most feasible option for the Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>Rob Pelinka and Co.\u00a0will have very little salary-cap space to work with in the 2025 offseason, unless LeBron James, who is owed $52.6M, opts out of his contract and renegotiates a more team-friendly deal.<\/p>\n<p>Another key factor would involve Dorian Finney-Smith\u2019s player option. The veteran wing is owed $15.3M but could opt out of his deal, giving the Lakers more flexibility.<\/p>\n<h2>Other Lakers Options at Center<\/h2>\n<p>Despite their salary-cap situation, the Lakers will have plenty of interesting options to upgrade at the center spot.<\/p>\n<p>Besides Lopez, the likes of\u00a0Clint Capela, Myles Turner, Naz Reid, Steven Adams, Mortiz Wagner,\u00a0Al Horford, Kevon Looney and\u00a0Andre Drummond\u00a0will become free agents in 2025. Furthermore, Doncis\u2019 former Mavericks teammate,\u00a0Dwight Powell, will also be available for potentially the veteran minimum.<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the Lakers\u2019 plans could boil down to James\u2019 $52.6M player option. According to\u00a0Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, James could opt out of his deal to help the Lakers add size.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLeBron will likely opt out of his $50.6 million player option, but he is not expected to leave Los Angeles, league sources told ClutchPoints,\u201d Siegel wrote on March 28. \u201cThis has been James\u2019 strategy through the years, signing those unique \u201c1+1\u201d contracts which give him and the Lakers flexibility to adjust their cap numbers accordingly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLast offseason, James made it clear to Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office that he would be willing to take a slight pay cut if it meant them targeting impactful talents who could increase the team\u2019s championship odds. He will very likely do the same this summer, allowing Los Angeles to add more talent around him and Luka Doncic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Will Brook Lopez Be A Good Fit?<\/h2>\n<p>Lopez was a key member of the Bucks\u2019 2021 championship-winning team. However, the 7-footer has seen his numbers dip drastically over the last few seasons. In 2024-25, he averaged 13.0 points and 5.0 rebounds, but was only a +1.7 on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>During the playoffs, he became an even bigger non-factor, averaging just 14.8 minutes through five games of the Bucks\u2019 first-round loss to the Bucks.<\/p>\n<p>In those five games, Lopez averaged a\u00a0career playoff low 5.0 points and 1.6 rebounds, and could not impact the game defensively. Even worse, he was a minus-5.2 on the floor.<\/p>\n<p>Lopez, who previously played for the Lakers, could be an interesting option off the bench. However, the Lakers may be taking a huge risk by entrusting a 37-year-old to solve their issues with interior rebounding and defense. Furthermore, Lopez doesn\u2019t fit the\u00a0prototype lob-threat big\u00a0that Doncic likes to play with.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if the Lakers can explore other options, possibly even via trade. For now, they\u2019ll try to stay alive against the Timberwolves in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Lakers\u2018 lack of size was severely exposed in the first-round playoff series against the Timberwolves. The franchise is expected to address those issues with the acquisition&#8230; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SHOCKING!! Lakers Predicted to Land NBA Champion as Starting Center - News 365<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/new365.azontree.com\/?p=57512\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SHOCKING!! 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