NBA: Lakers land Sandro Mamukelashvili, Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton

FILE–Sandro Mamukelashvili #54 of the Toronto Raptors reacts after a foul against Deandre Ayton #5 of the Los Angeles Lakers during the third quarter at Crypto.com Arena on January 18, 2026.  Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images/AFP 

MIAMI–The Los Angeles Lakers are thoroughly retooling their NBA roster following LeBron James’ decision to leave and Marcus Smart’s move to Houston.

After agreeing to a major trade to acquire center Walker Kessler from Utah, they added forward Sandro Mamukelashvili and guards Quentin Grimes and Collin Sexton in free agency, a person with knowledge of those talks told the AP.

Mamukelashvili, a bulky power forward with an outside shooting touch, played his way into a multiyear deal with the Lakers by scoring a career-high 11.2 points per game and hitting 38.9% of his 3-point attempts for Toronto last season and then opting out of his contract.

Grimes is a former Dallas teammate of Luka Doncic who provides strong on-ball defense and versatile offensive skills. Grimes posted a photo of himself as a child wearing Lakers gear on social media Wednesday.

Sexton has been a consistent scorer throughout his first eight NBA seasons with four teams. He averaged 15.4 points and 3.3 assists per game last season for Charlotte and Chicago.

Smart, meanwhile, is about to join his fourth team in a span of 17 months after agreeing with the Houston Rockets on a two-year deal worth about $12.7 million.

Smart was with Memphis as recently as February 2025, then was sent to Washington to complete that season and spent this past season with the Lakers. He averaged 9.3 points and started 54 games for the Lakers in 2025-26.