Los Angeles Lakers: Five reasons to go after Klay Thompson this summer
By Ethan Temkin
3. The Lakers can offer him a max outright, whereas the Warriors may have to ask him to take a pay-cut to keep their luxury tax at a manageable level.
The biggest question surrounding the future of the Golden State dynasty is the matter of money, and how much ownership is willing to spend to keep this super team together. With Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant as impending free agents, and both having expressed a desire to be paid this offseason, the tax bill looming over this franchise is astronomical.
Should Klay and Durant re-up with the Warriors for their respective maximum contracts, the luxury tax bill could be upwards of $300 million per year. Even for a team as successful as the Warriors both on the court and off, that is still a hard pill for ownership to swallow.
Should the Warriors decide to play hard-ball with Thompson, and ask him to take less to keep the tax-bill down, the Lakers can swoop in with around $36 million in cap space and offer Thompson his full $32 million max in a pinch and still have some cap room to spare.