Lakers Face Roster Challenges as Adou Thiero Emerges

September has arrived, and the Los Angeles Lakers are still staring at the same problem: a roster with holes and almost no room to fix them.

Jonathan Kuminga slipping away to the Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t just sting. It narrowed an already tight alley.

As Khobi Price of the California Post detailed, the Lakers’ failed push for Kuminga leaves a clear gap in the frontcourt. They sit just $8.1 million below the NBA’s $209 million first-apron threshold and are hard-capped for the 2026-27 season. Sixteen players already hold guaranteed contracts. The math is brutal. The flexibility is close to nonexistent.

Free agency offers little more than stopgaps. The trade market demands assets the Lakers have mostly spent. So the question in September is no longer, “Who can they get?” It’s drifting toward, “Who do they already have?”

When the Market Closes, the Bench Opens

If another move doesn’t materialize, the organization’s next bet is obvious: internal growth. That’s where Adou Thiero walks into the frame.

At 22, the second-year forward is not a ready-made solution. He is, however, one of the few young Lakers who can realistically grow into a rotation role this season. Price notes that in the wake of the failed Kuminga chase, Thiero is now among the small group of players expected to see more opportunity.

On paper, the comparison is easy to see. Thiero stands 6-foot-8 and 220 pounds. Kuminga is 6-foot-7, 225. Both bring explosive athleticism and uncommon quickness for their size. The difference, as Price points out, is on the offensive end, where Kuminga is well ahead in polish and production.

But the Lakers no longer have the luxury of comparing. They have to cultivate.

Without Kuminga, a lane opens for Thiero to at least reach the fringes of the rotation. That’s not nothing on a team searching for size, speed and juice on the wing.

Players with Thiero’s profile have often thrived next to a high-usage offensive creator like Luka Doncic. In Los Angeles, the theory is similar: surround stars with length and vertical threats who can run, cut, rebound and defend. Thiero checks those theoretical boxes, even if he’s still learning how to translate them consistently at NBA speed.

He’s not close to a starting-caliber forward yet. But his energy, his willingness to fly, and his knack for producing the kind of above-the-rim moments that light up social feeds have already caught the imagination of a fan base desperate for fresh legs on the wing.

From G League Grind to Playoff Glimpse

The optimism isn’t built on summer mixtapes alone.

As Price notes, Thiero’s second season came with interruptions. Lower-body injuries sidelined him for stretches. He spent most of 2025-26 in the G League, grinding through the kind of reps that never trend but often matter.

Then, quietly, his year ended in a very different setting: he started to see consistent minutes in the playoffs.

That late trust from the coaching staff didn’t turn him into an overnight star, but it did something almost as important. It proved he could stay on the floor when the games tightened and the mistakes were magnified. For a raw, developing forward, that’s a crucial checkpoint.

July then gave him a louder stage. In summer league action in San Francisco and Las Vegas, Thiero put together the kind of highlight packages that travel quickly among Lakers fans. Lob finishes. Strong rebounds in traffic. Defensive possessions where he held his ground against bigger forwards.

Price is clear-eyed about it: Thiero is still raw, with plenty of development ahead. The reads, the timing, the shooting—those will take time. Yet the role he projects into is precisely the one the Lakers hoped Kuminga would fill.

A bigger wing who can be a lob threat. A strong rebounder. A defender capable of holding his own against size. Those are the tasks the Lakers were ready to hand to Kuminga. Now they might hand them, in smaller doses, to Thiero.

And with the market bare and the cap sheet locked, playing time should be easier to find for a young forward who can bring that blend of length, bounce and defensive versatility.

The Lakers wanted a ready-made answer in Kuminga. What they have instead is a question: how quickly can Adou Thiero grow into the space that just opened in front of him?