The Los Angeles Lakers young core will have an impact on the team’s free agency plans this summer.
Since taking over the helm of the Los Angeles Lakers, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have sought to bring the organization back to prominence and into championship contention. Acquiring a superstar level player and building a solid young core is their course of action.
The recent trade deadline move that saw Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers freed up almost enough cap space for two max players. Suddenly, the Lakers have the possibility to land not only Lebron James, but another marquee free agent in the 2018 class like Paul George or Demarcus Cousins.
The Lakers available cap space for summer 2018 and the moves they can make to get more space have been well documented. Letting Julius Randle walk as a restricted free agent, or stretching Luol Deng’s contract over 11 years are some examples.
However, people seem to forget that the Lakers have a lot more to consider when thinking about how to get back to championship level contention. Simply signing Lebron and another high caliber free agent won’t ensure continued success that a team like Golden State has been able to attain.
Other than Luol Deng, the Lakers only have seven players on guaranteed contracts for next year, including Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball. These four constitute the young core that Magic and Pelinka have the desire to develop and build around.
The long-term future of the franchise must be in immediate consideration when 60 percent of your total cap space is going to be committed to only two incoming free agents for multiple years.
Based off Basketball References’ payroll list for the Lakers, the Lakers have team options on Ball, Kuzma and Hart through the 2020-2021 season, and Ingram through the 2019-2020 season. This allows the organization to carefully evaluate these players each season. With James and George on max deals, the Lakers would be near the cap ceiling with nine players under contracts. This would leave very little money to fill out a supporting cast.
The Lakers will aim to pick promising players in the draft and sign cheap veterans. Will a team built this way be enough to compete for a championship right away? The Lakers’ core is good, but don’t forget how young they are. With an average age of 21, this core is not ready to handle and win eventual key playoff series.
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The introduction of James and George may expedite that process. Though, even if L.A. was ideally able to sign James and George to multi-year deals (say the maximum four), that would give them only two years to turn this team into something before the first of L.A.’s young core, Ingram, hits the restricted free agency market in 2019 and is due a pay raise.
The following year, the next three players will undergo that same RFA process. In this small amount of time, will this team be able to contend for a title? Will their lack of chemistry and shared adversity be their downfall? Either is likely.
The money will be dry to fill out a roster if James and George commit this summer. The cap room to appropriately pay our young core in the future will have vanished. With a marginally increased cap, L.A. won’t be able to pay this young core that is key to future success.
By bringing in James and George on multi-year max deals, the Lakers will financially strap themselves moving forward. They will then be unable to pay their young stars who will hopefully become superstars.
The Lakers could eventually lose these young players as teams outbid for them in RFA. To keep financial flexibility, L.A. could work out short-term deals with incoming free agents. With Lebron seeking no less than the max, is Lebron to the Lakers suddenly as attractive as it seems?
As James Herbert from CBSSports described in his piece on L.A.’s impending offseason, there is a scenario where George could sign for two years slightly below the max in order to receive the 10-year veteran max contract when the time comes. Scenarios like these provide success and flexibility moving forward.
Magic and Pelinka made a commitment to bring the Lakers back to prominence. They must take very calculated steps this summer and moving forward, to retain and develop our young core. If not, they could financially mortgage the future of the franchise as previous general managers like Mitch Kupchak did.
The Lebron to L.A. scenario (with George or not) represents a win-now strategy. Magic and Pelinka have said they are serious about building another Lakers dynasty. If so, they will take time to determine the viability of adding James/George and how that affects the teams future.
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Although many people want to see Lebron and PG in purple and gold, the young core must be the focus. Solid young players on inexpensive deals are the formula for building a contender right now.