Report: Lakers like chemistry of team, opted to ‘keep that dynamic’ over signing two-way players

While Trey Jemison and Christian Koloko have made an impact for the Lakers, the team did not convert them into standard deals because they like their roster and chemistry.

As the regular season ended, the Lakers had one last chance to change their roster before the playoffs began.

While they didn’t address this publicly, as the season concluded, Lakers fans saw Trey Jemison playing occasionally as a backup big.

With Jemison and Christian Koloko both on two-way deals, the only way to have them play in postseason action is if L.A. would waive a player to make room on the roster, like they did with Jordan Goodwin.

However, Los Angeles did no such thing and kept the roster as is. Dave McMenamin reported that a team source told ESPN that the chemistry of the group is one of the reasons they decided not to make any changes.

In the end, this would’ve been a marginal change that likely wouldn’t have affected the Lakers' rotation much. Koloko has only played in two of L.A.’s last 14 games, and Jemison has only played 10-plus minutes twice during that same stretch.

Could they be more helpful than Maxi Kleber, who has returned to on-court activities but has yet to play, or Alex Len, who has looked awful during the games he’s participated in? Maybe, but the Lakers aren’t broke, so why fix them?

L.A. is a 50-win team, and if the chemistry is great and these are end-of-the-bench guys anyway, perhaps it’s best not to rock the boat and just dance with the team that brought you here.

As McMenamin has also reported, Jemison and Koloko will continue to practice and be as involved with the Lakers as much as possible. They can still practice; they just can’t suit up or play in any upcoming Lakers games.

So, with the Lakers beginning their first round series on Saturday against the Wolves, there are no more moves or additions to be made. The 15-man roster is known and we’ll see how far they can go with this iteration of the Lakers.

They might be short a big, but they are full of chemistry, and with that, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Luka Dončić and coach JJ Redick, perhaps that will be enough to win it all.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.