What will it take for the Lakers to acquire Jonathan Kuminga?

LAS VEGAS — The Lakers want Jonathan Kuminga. Jonathan Kuminga, also, wants to be a Laker. But as of Wednesday afternoon, over a week into the start of free agency, the two sides remained far apart on what it would take to bring the 23-year-old forward to L.A.despite the mutual interest. After the Hawks declined Kuminga’s $24.3 million team option on June 29, Lakers president of basketball operations/general manager Rob Pelinka and coach JJ Redick met with Kuminga the following day.A part of the Lakers’ free-agency pitch to Kuminga, a source told the California Post, was the Lakers seeing Kuminga as a high-level, starting wing who would complete the vision of their roster reconstruction around superstar guard Luka Doncic.That vision included re-signing Austin Reaves and acquiring a marquee center this offseason – both of which were executed after Reaves agreed to a four-year $185 million deal to return to L.A.

and the Lakers agreed to a four-year, $130 million with Walker Kessler in a sign-and-trade with the Jazz.   But the Lakers’ initial offer to Kuminga didn’t back up the vision they were pitching to him.From there, the Lakers, who entered the offseason with around $52 million in salary cap space, agreed to deals with several players on July 2 that ate into that cap space: Kessler, Quentin Grimes (four years, $60 million), Sandro Mamukelashvili (four years, $52 million) and Collin Sexton (two years, $19 million).Since then, they opened up more cap space (around $2.1 million) by trading Deandre Ayton to the Wizards for Jaden Hardy and a pair of Washington’s second-round picks (2031 and 2032) but that space essentially vanished when they agreed to terms on a one-year, $3.9 million contract with Kevon Looney that counts $2.49 million against the cap since it’s a veteran minimum’s deal.That has left the Lakers with one open roster spot and little financial flexibility while still pursuing Kuminga.Pelinka has stayed in touch with Kuminga’s ...