After last night’s devastating blow, the Lakers plan on filing for a disabled player exception on Julius Randle, the second one for the season.
The Lakers plan to file another disabled player exception for Randle. Lakers haven't heard back on Nash's disabled player exception yet
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) October 29, 2014
As stated above, the Lakers have apparently filed for a disabled player exception on Steve Nash, who was lost for the season due to nerve issues in his back. With an answer still weeks away, these seem like possible trade chips more than anything for the Lakers.
Salary cap savant Eric Pincus of basketball insiders and the LA Times answered many questions regarding the disabled player exceptions for the Lakers on his Twitter today.
Something to note - there's no Nash disabled player exception yet - no Randle one either - league has to grant - after Lakers apply
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) October 29, 2014
I feel like I should just tweet every 20 minutes - no, disabled player exceptions (DPE) cannot be combined w/players or other DPE
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) October 29, 2014
The Lakers are likely to get $4.85 mil (Nash) and $1.5 mil (Randle) disabled player exceptions -both can be used on 1 player ea on 1yr deals
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) October 29, 2014
The biggest question for Lakers fan is likely the last tweet, regarding the possibility of combining the exceptions. Nonetheless, this could help the Lakers even more in possible trades, specifically multi-team trades with their ability to absorb contracts without any going on.
While they may not be able to combine exceptions, they could use both of them in one trade with two players incoming.
Finding a silver lining in this injury as well as the Nash one is quite difficult, but if the Lakers can swing a draft pick or two out of it, it could make the loss slightly less painful.