Many of the recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors have revolved around the team prepping for training camp. The 2017-18 season officially began this week, with Media Day this past Monday and training camp beginning right after. For one of the most recent Lakers rumors, we take a trip down memory lane.
The Lakers came into this offseason with a plan in place. Their roster has a ton of budding talent, so they wanted to find a way to relieve themselves of future salary burdens. They accomplished that goal partly when they shipped Timofey Mozgov to the Brooklyn Nets along with D’Angelo Russell in exchange for Brook Lopez and the No. 27 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft.
A majority of the Lakers offseason moves were made prior to and during the 2017 NBA Draft. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka had a plan in place and they executed it. The Lakers are in a youth movement.
The Lakers are in a youth movement, and Johnson and Pelinka followed that. They were not in the running for any of the big named free agents, as they wanted to keep their future books as clear as possible.
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As a result, the Lakers were looking to only add players on one-year deals. They lucked out by landing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope later on in free agency. Caldwell-Pope began the offseason as a restricted free agent, but the Detroit Pistons eventually renounced his rights after other moves they made.
Had their original free agent plan panned out, Caldwell-Pope would not be the Lakers starting shooting guard. Instead, it could be former NBA Finals MVP and two-time NBA Champion, Andre Iguodala.
Iguodala had one of the crazier offseasons of any player in the NBA. As a main cog in the Golden State Warriors machine, many people thought it was an automatic that he would return to the team. However, that ended up not being the case.
Chris Haynes penned a story about Iguodala’s hectic offseason at ESPN. Part of the whirlwind process involved the Lakers.
As Haynes explained, the Warriors low-balled Iguodala. It opened him up for business, as he met with many of teams, one of them being the Lakers.
The Lakers went into the conference call knowing they were longshots. Unlike the other teams he was meeting with, the Lakers were not going to offer a long-term deal. However, they did have two things working for them; Rob Pelinka and a large sum of money.
Pelinka was Iguodala’s agent throughout his 13-year NBA career before becoming the Lakers general manager. He had a close relationship with Magic Johnson, and one with head coach Luke Walton as well; a former Arizona Wildcat and assistant coach with the Warriors team Iguodala played for.
In addition to the strong leadership, Iguodala had previous relationships with, the Lakers young talent is intriguing for any free agent. Lonzo Ball‘s passing skills make him a player everyone wants to play with. Brandon Ingram has a sky-high ceiling. Iguodala would have been a great mentor for them, and the Lakers were willing to pay lavishly.
According to Haynes, the Lakers were going to offer Iguodala a monster one-year, balloon contract.
"Los Angeles had significant cap space and a desperate need for veteran leadership to help guide its young core, including Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram. The call lasted about 20 minutes, sources said, but the Lakers were optimistic and offered a one-year deal in the $20 million-plus range."
$20 million dollars is a lot of money for any player. The chance to play with some young talent for that kind of payday is difficult to pass up. However, there were a lot of teams vying to sign Iguodala.
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According to Haynes, Iguodala kept giving the Warriors a chance to up their offer, and they eventually did. It resulted in them retaining a key member of their bench unit and looking as loaded as ever.