Los Angeles Lakers: Grading the trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers

Los Angeles Lakers: A+

Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance, Jr. were great contributors this year. I will miss them, but let’s look at the bigger picture. The Lakers may have won in this trade with Cleveland.

Both Isaiah Thomas’ ($6.2M) and Channing Frye’s ($7.4M) contracts are set to expire this offseason. (Frye is also reunited with his former teammate, Luke Walton, who is now ironically his coach). If the Lakers were to waive and stretch Luol Deng’s contract this offseason, they would have two max slots for 2018-2019, per ESPN’s Woj, and $70M would open up for Magic to spend this season, and over $75M next season.

Were LeBron James and Paul George to team up, this would be the time. Unlike the end of the Kobe Bryant era, the Lakers now have sale pitches to stars leaving their teams. Lonzo Ball is a perfect unselfish facilitator to pair up with. Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma have shown the potential to be elite scorers in the future.

This also isn’t bad for the Lakers if the competitive market took the superstars away from them. Over the summer, Pelinka signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to a 1 yr/$17M deal. One-year rentals are easier to manage. It allows the player to prove his worth in the upcoming season. The franchise can easily manage them as well, using the player for trade bait for draft picks.

Next: Ranking the 50 greatest Lakers of all-time

The Lakers were never going to keep Clarkson or Nance in the future. Unfortunately for Randle, he may be the next athlete to be shipped out or let go by the Magic/Pelinka regime.

This trade sets the bar, and now the Lakers have all the tools to capture the talents of LeBron James, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, or any other huge star in years to come.