Three words did a lot of work this week. When former NBA guard Iman Shumpert said on his Shump Street podcast that he thought Jonathan Kuminga had already gone to the Lakers, ESPN insider Shams Charania corrected him on the spot: “That’s not done yet.”
The correction says more than its word count. Charania has reported that Los Angeles continues to strongly pursue Kuminga as a potential starting forward, even after the team addressed its wing depth with a one-year, $3 million agreement with Ziaire Williams earlier this week. “Not done yet” is not a report of an agreement — Charania offered no details beyond the correction — but it confirms the pursuit is live rather than dead, and listeners noticed he was smiling when he said it.
The timing explains the interest. The Lakers are reshaping their forward rotation in a summer defined by LeBron James’ pending free-agency decision, after James informed the franchise he will play elsewhere in 2026-27. A 23-year-old forward who can start and grow with the roster is precisely the profile a post-LeBron front office should be chasing, and Charania’s reporting indicates that is exactly how Los Angeles views Kuminga.
What happens next is the open question. Nothing Charania said indicates a deal is close, only that one has not happened — and that the Lakers have not moved on. With training camps still months away, Los Angeles has time to work. But every rotation the Lakers fill in the meantime shrinks the minutes they can promise, and a smirk on a podcast is the kind of tea leaf that tends to resolve itself quickly, one way or the other.
