by lakerevolution » Wed Jul 04, 2018 7:43 am
In summary:
Kevin Pelton, ESPN
"The moves signal that the Lakers are focused on maintaining flexibility for the summer of 2019, offering only one-year deals to free agents. After signing James, Caldwell-Pope and Rondo, L.A. would still have nearly $6 million in remaining cap space. The Lakers could then use their room midlevel exception to sign Stephenson and add McGee and other players making the minimum to fill out the roster.
The Lakers could still get up to $16-plus million in cap space by waiving forward Luol Deng, while stretching the remaining two years on his contract would get the Lakers to nearly $25 million in cap room. However, stretching Deng doesn't seem worth it if the Lakers are merely signing players to one-year deals. In that case, it's better to keep Deng's salary on the books in case it can be cleared more easily via trade next summer as an expiring contract. After all, the Lakers have to weigh any moves this summer against what they might be able to do in free agency this time next year.
The scenario I've outlined where the Lakers sign nothing but one-year deals this summer would leave L.A. with something like $25 million in cap space in 2019 with Deng on the books. Waiving and stretching Deng then would get the Lakers to about $37 million in projected space, more than enough to make a max offer to players with seven to nine years of experience. Conveniently, next summer's free-agent class includes a number of stars in this market, starting with Leonard but also including Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Kemba Walker.
Leonard has made it clear he intends to sign with the Lakers, and the way things have unfolded has reduced their urgency to trade for him now. The Lakers would have had to acquire Leonard via trade to fit him in at the max had they signed two max free agents (that is, James and George) to multiyear contracts. Dealing for Leonard at this point also was imperative if it was necessary to land James. With those scenarios seemingly off the table, the Lakers can afford to be more patient.
There's still a downside to waiting on Leonard, of course -- that being the possibility that he gets traded to a new team and decides to re-sign there, just as George did in Oklahoma City. There's value in the certainty of having Leonard in hand now, but that must be weighed against the players and picks the Lakers would have to give up to acquire him. I'd probably rather take my chances, particularly with the Lakers unlikely to win a championship this season even if they dealt for Leonard.
After all, Leonard isn't the only option for the Lakers. Back when Butler was a restricted free agent with the Chicago Bulls, he expressed interest in signing an offer sheet with the Lakers, per Adrian Wojnarowski. And Thompson, whose father, Mychal, played for the Lakers and is now their color analyst for radio, would be a natural fit if he elects to leave the Warriors.
Adding a max free agent next summer is no certainty for the Lakers, but doing so while retaining their young talent either to develop alongside James or for additional trades remains their best chance of building a championship-caliber team."