While the Lakers are over the salary cap, they still may be able to re-sign valuable free agent role players with raises as well as signing a free agent third scorer, second playmaker, elite wing defender, or modern center.
The Lakers will have to take advantage of league exceptions which allow teams to go over the cap when signing free agents, synchronized execution of the transactions, and opportunistic use of their MLE in a buyers’ market. The Lakers won’t be able to bring back every role player who contributed to their championship but should be able to re-sign the three most important and irreplaceable role players while giving them well deserved raises.
Those three role players are Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Rajon Rondo, and Markieff Morris, all of whom were invaluable contributors to the Lakers’ championship rotation and are essential to the team winning next season. KCP and Rondo are exercising their player options to become free agents while Morris will be a free agent when his 1-year minimum deal expires. The Lakers need to re-sign all three and give them well deserved raises.
Caldwell-Pope earned $8.1 million last season and could easily attract offers between $10 to $12 million as a free agent but the Lakers have his Bird rights and are allowed to go over the salary cap up to re-sign him. Kenny proved he was the team’s third best player and a key component of the offense and defense during the regular season and playoffs. The Lakers should reward him with a 2 or 3-year contract for $12 million per year.
Rondo earned $2.6 million last season and proved to be indispensable both as a floor general and playmaker in the playoffs, setting a record for the most assists from a player off the bench in the history of the NBA playoffs. Rajon should attract offers for taxpayers’ MLE, around $5 million next season. The Lakers have his Early Bird rights and should reward him with a 2-year contract for $6 million with the second year partially guaranteed.
Morris was a late addition replacing Avery Bradley before the season restart. As a power forward who could shoot from deep and defend, he was the catalyst that allowed Anthony Davis to play as center for the Lakers. Markieff earned $2.2 million last season but should receive offers of $3 to $4 million as a free agent. The Lakers should use their Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign him to a 2-year $3.6 per year million contract as he is a key player.
By using Bird rights to re-sign KCP, Early Bird rights to re-sign Rondo, and the Bi-Annual Exception to re-sign Morris, the Laker will have their full $9.3 million non-taxpayer Mid-Level Exception available to pursue free agents. With few teams having major cap space, the $9.3 million MLE and a chance to win a championship ring is likely to make the Lakers a major player for all but a half dozen elite free agents like Fred VanVleet or Davis Bertans.
The Lakers should have no problem filling roster needs with the MLE. How about Danilo Gallinari as their third scorer. Goran Dragic as their second playmaker, Mo Harkness as wing defender, or Aron Baynes as stretch big? There will only be five NBA teams with cap space to offer more to Gallinari, Dragic, Harkness, or Baynes than the Lakers and of those, only the Miami Heat had a winning record last season. The Lakers will get one of these.
Finally, the Lakers will end up with two or three roster spots to be filled by minimum salary veterans looking for an opportunity to win a championship ring or revitalize their career like Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo did. Heading the list of players in this category will be DeMarcus Cousins, who spent all of last year on the Lakers’ active roster or working out at their facilities after they waived him to sign Markieff Morris before the restart.
So while the Lakers don’t have cap space this offseason, they’re still going to be major players in the free agent market and should be able to re-sign their key free agent role players as well as signing at least one major free agent.
One of the interesting aspects of the this free agency season is many free agents may be looking to sign 1-year deals in hopes of being able to get more money next season when there will be more teams with cap space and the pandemic may be over. The Lakers may be able to keep their own players, add a key starter, and maximize their cap space for after next season.
That not only helps the Lakers with respect to their own players like KCP, Rondo, and Morris but also with players they’re looking to sign with their $9.3 million MLE like Dragic, Gallinari, Harkness, or Baynes. It could even lure players like VanVleet or Christian Wood to accept the MLE this year, win a ring, and then go for the gold next offseason. Going to be a great free agency for Lakers.
It’ll be interesting to see what the market for Markieff, KCP and Rondo is. KCP and Klutch have had a lot of good years with the Lakers and this ring is something they will treasure. Really wish we could get an idea of what the cap will look like, if all the normal tools will remain in place and what the amount they will actually represent be. So many fcats remain up in the air but if the money works out and the players don’t get better offers elsewhere, I feel like this makes a lot of sense Tom.
I think, with the MLE, we should look to sign a play maker/defender. Freddy-V is my first choice. Proven winner, but might be looking for more of a role. He could choose to go to the Knicks or a team that can offer him a bigger role on that one-year deal. The thing with the one-year movement is these guys aren’t going to be looked to be slotted behind LeBron or AD or fighting Caruso for a role off the bench. They’re going to want to prove they are worth big money, big role, in LeBron’s words: get their damn respect. That could play against us in that we have a fairly established pecking order.
Winning a ring is bigger than those concerns and what better place to do that than LA? Going to be very interesting…
Thanks for commenting, Jamie.
The consensus seems to be that the cap is going to remain the same as last year, around $109 million, so I don’t think that’s going to change anything.
Basically, it’s a tough year to be a free agent or a team looking for free agents. Not only are we still in the middle of a pandemic that crushed team profits this year and is likely to do the same next year but there are only five teams with significant cap space and only one team – the Heat – that has a winning record. On top of that, there aren’t really any free agent stars available.
Frankly, I stand by my stance that this all favors the Lakers in being able to keep their main three free agents – KCP, Rondo, and Morris – and have a good shot at a scorer like Gallinari, playmaker like Dragic, wing defender like Harkness, and stretch big like Baynes. The forecasts have been so dire that I now think we have a shot at Christian Wood with our MLE. Main thing is I don’t see anybody who is going to offer more than we can easily pay for KCP or Rondo. Morris could conceivably get offered more than the $3.6 million BAE we can offer but Markieff has already said on social media he was running it back. So we should be fine.
I would love to sign Fred VanVleet but I do think he’s one of the few who will get paid more than the $9.3 million non-taxpayer MLE. For sure, the Raptors will pay him. But, yeah, I share your high opinion of him. Clutch championship performer at both ends. He has a ring so he might opt to take the money and go with the Knicks. One thing for all of these guys to consider is taking one-year deals for the MLE and hitting free agency after next season when almost every team in the league will have cap space. Think we may see a lot of that, which does play into the Lakers desire to save cap space for Giannis.
Good point about roles with the one-year contracts. There’s a part of me that thinks we may see three new starters behind LeBron and AD next season with KCP being one of them and whomever we get with the MLE and get via trade being the other two. Big offseason for the Lakers to take advantage of the championship and an offseason as weird as last season.