Los Angeles Lakers: Busy offseason coming for Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka

Steps 1, 2 and 3

1. The team can and should re-sign restricted free agent Julius Randle. Walton said he’d love to have Randle back. Unless Johnson and Pelinka sign two elite free agents (ie. both George and James), expect that they will indeed retain Randle. He had a tremendous year, including All-Star quality numbers since the All-Star break, yet still has room for improvement.

2. The Lakers have ‘cheap’ (ie, under $2 million) team options on three players; Tyler Ennis, Ivica Zubac and Thomas Bryant. Chances are pretty good that Magic and Rob will exercise those options on the latter two young big men, and probably on Ennis too.

3. The team has three relatively prominent unrestricted free agents in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Brook Lopez, and Isaiah Thomas. Veteran Channing Frye will also be an unrestricted free agent. All are expected to seek multi-year contracts.

Johnson and Pelinka probably won’t extend such an offer to any because their goal is to preserve salary cap room. However, it would not be surprising if one, or even two, agreed to return for a large one-year deal, perhaps similar to what KCP signed for this past season.