The Los Angeles Lakers are on the clock, and fans wonder why they haven’t added anyone since the start of free agency.
The short answer is that they can’t, not at their projected roster and salary level.
As the Lakers stand—in large part due to the player options they gave to Cam Reddish, Christian Wood and Jaxson Hayes last year—they will have a full roster of 15 regular contracts once LeBron James and Max Christie officially re-sign.
LeBron’s agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that the four-time MVP was open to taking less than his max salary if it enable the Lakers to sign an “impact player” such as Klay Thompson, James Harden and Jonas Valančiūnas. With all three off the board, James agreed to a two-year, $104 million max contract Wednesday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, although he’s willing to take slightly less to keep the Lakers below the $188.9 million second apron.
Outside of two-way contracts, the Lakers no longer have the roster space to add anyone. Even if they did, they could only offer minimum-salary contracts to free agents.
The Lakers also can’t take back more salary in a trade than they send out without getting hard-capped at the $178.1 million first apron, and they’d be hard-capped at the second apron if they aggregate two or more contracts in a trade. Competing executives are aware of those restrictions and are eager to take advantage of the Lakers if they come calling for a deal.
We’ve come up with five suggestions on how the Lakers might navigate these treacherous waters to safe harbor, though the price may be higher than they’re willing to pay.
The Portland Trail Blazers are still in the early stages of their post-Damian Lillard rebuilding process. Jerami Grant has four more years and $132.4 million left on his contract. While that isn’t a toxic deal, it’s not very friendly in the NBA’s new economy given his age (30).
Robert Williams III hasn’t been consistently healthy for some time, and his two-season deal has between $25.7-28.9 million left on it. The 26-year-old would be a solid upside play for the Lakers, but he’s only potentially available because of his lack of durability.
Both would fill needs as big, capable defenders, although Grant has primarily been a scorer since leaving the Denver Nuggets for the Detroit Pistons in 2020.
A combination of D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura, Jalen Hood-Schifino and Christian Wood would be enough salary to bring back Grant and Williams without trigging a first-apron hard cap, though the Lakers would be hard-capped. That could require James to take about $4-17 million below the max, though./cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73418575/1259096801.0.jpg)
Are the Blazers eager enough to trade Grant and Williams that they’d take the expiring contracts of Russell and Wood, a second-year player who isn’t healthy enough to play in summer league after back surgery (Hood-Schifino) and a young, talented player in Hachimura at $35.3 million over two seasons? Or would Portland try to extract draft compensation from L.A. in a deal?
The Blazers have time on their side with Malcolm Brogdon going to the Washington Wizards for Deni Avdija. They’re no longer in danger of paying luxury taxes for a rebuilding roster.
Still, getting out of big contracts may hold some appeal to them.
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