How Can Jim Buss Win Over Lakers Fans?
By Colin Lopez
2. Sign at Least One Max Level Star
Mar. 3, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks small forward Carmelo Anthony (7) and Miami Heat small forward LeBron James (6) wait for a rebound during the first half at Madison Square Garden. Miami won 99-93. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
As I just covered, the Lakers have a ton of cap space next summer (especially if Kobe’s cap hold is taken off the books). Lakers fans have been happy with this offseason’s signings, in part because we are aware of the financial restrictions limiting the Lakers. Next offseason, having the largest acquisition be Chris Kaman would be unacceptable. We’ve been lead to believe this will be the summer the Lakers reload for Kobe’s last hurrah. Coming away with anything less than one max level player is unacceptable. As a caveat to this, you can’t just give an undeserving player a max contract to appease fans. Signing someone like Rudy Gay, a great player, but not a franchise player, would be more of a hindrance to the Lakers’ future than anything else.
3. Sign Role Players
Role players have been something the Lakers have lacked in the past couple years. Due to the CBA restrictions, the Lakers haven’t been allowed to offer the mid level exception to free agents, drastically limiting their ability to bring in solid role players. The Heat managed to bring in both Mike Miller and Shane Battier using their MLE, both of whom were massively important at one point or another in the Heat’s back-to-back championships. So now the Lakers will be expected to sign these role players, the Robert Horry or Rick Fox types who aren’t $10 million a year players, but are worth $5-7 million and contribute massively in creating a real team.