Los Angeles Lakers are wise to show patience with their cap space

With a lot of money to spend this offseason, the Los Angeles Lakers are in a good position to improve. However, they would be wise not to just throw money around this offseason.

After a big trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, the Los Angeles Lakers gave themselves the ability to sign two max free agents this offseason. This was a goal of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka before the 2018 offseason, and they were able to accomplish that.

With big free agents in 2018, the Lakers could see themselves landing two All-Stars, which would make them contenders in the Western Conference with their improving young core. However, there is no guarantee that the Lakers will be able to land two or even one of the marquee free agents.

In previous years, the Lakers have been a little wild when they missed on free agents, as shown by the contracts given to Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov most recently. However, Magic and Pelinaka aren’t in a rush to just throw money around if they miss on free agents this offseason.

Recently, Magic spoke about being patient if the Lakers miss out on free agents this offseason. Here is what he said via Harrison Faigen of LakersNation.com.

"“We’ve already said if we don’t feel we can get somebody in ‘18 we’ll get somebody in ‘19. I feel really good with where we are. We’re not going to give money away just to say we signed somebody.”"

These comments by Magic are certainly encouraging to hear, as the Lakers have done a really good job giving themselves the opportunity to sign great free agents. With the awful contract of Luol Deng still on the books, Lakers fans certainly don’t want to see something like that happen again.

With a great young core, there really isn’t a rush for the Lakers to sign star players in 2018. Even if they miss out on Paul George and LeBron James, the Lakers should still improve with Brandon Ingram entering his third season and their great rookie class getting a year older. Also, the 2019 free agency class is also shaping up to be a good one, and the Lakers would still have that money to spend.

As shown last offseason, the Lakers could still add talented players on a one-year deal like they did with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Doing deals like this could help the Lakers improve once again in 2018 if they miss out on stars, and still keep their cap space for next offseason.

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Even though being patient can be tough, it is certainly the right move for the Lakers. Luckily, management appears to have a level head and isn’t going to rush anything.