Dorian Finney‑Smith has long stood out as the NBA’s archetypal “3‑and‑D” wing. A December 2024 trade brought the nine‑year veteran from the Brooklyn Nets to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for three second‑round picks, D’Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis. The 6’6″ forward immediately injected energy into a Lakers lineup desperate for defensive grit around LeBron James.
In 43 regular‑season appearances during the 2024-25 season, Finney‑Smith averaged 7.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Yet, barely an hour after free agency opened this summer, Finney‑Smith agreed on a four‑year, $53 million contract with the Houston Rockets.
How the Lakers’ Inadequate Offer Fractured Ties With Dorian Finney-Smith
Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that the agreement came less than an hour into the market, underscoring Houston’s urgency to secure one of the offseason’s top wings. Behind the scenes, contract talks with the Lakers had already hit an impasse.
On July 1, SB Nation’s Harrison Faigen reported a clip of The Ringer’s “The Zach Lowe Show” podcast, with a caption, “Lowe says the Lakers’ negotiations with DFS went badly and ended on bad terms.”
In the clip, Lowe could be heard saying, “On Saturday, I said, keep an eye on the Finney-Smith situation. That’s going to be the tell for me for how the Lakers are thinking about things. Because I heard negotiations were going badly. And I said, ‘Would he even opt out? Do the Lakers even want to pay him?'”
“The answer to that turned out to be ‘No.’ They didn’t want to pay him, and he opted out. And I don’t think they ended on very good terms either,” Lowe claimed.
Lowe says the Lakers’ negotiations with DFS went badly and ended on bad terms pic.twitter.com/zCyBk8jg6I
— Harrison Faigen (@hmfaigen) July 2, 2025
Rather than matching Houston’s long‑term vision, Los Angeles reportedly extended only a two‑year proposal, unwilling to commit beyond 2026, despite possessing the mid‑level exception needed for a comparable offer.
The Athletic’s Dan Woike reported, “The Lakers, according to team sources, offered two years against the four-year, $53 million deal he got with Houston because they wanted to maintain as much future flexibility as possible to be in position to land a superstar down the line to pair with Dončić.”
As a result, Finney‑Smith declined his $15.4 million player option for 2025‑26, choosing to pursue market value rather than remain on a one‑year deal under a team that seemed hesitant to lock in his services.
The split laid bare a philosophical divide. Los Angeles Lakers prioritized future cap flexibility, while Finney‑Smith valued the certainty of a multi‑year commitment comparable with his on‑court impact.
With Finney‑Smith off the board, Los Angeles diverted its mid‑level exception to sign power forward Jake LaRavia to a two‑year, $12 million deal, banking on the 23‑year‑old’s upside after a promising stint in Sacramento. Yet replacing Finney‑Smith’s veteran poise represents a formidable challenge for an unproven youngster.
