Los Angeles Lakers: Tier 1 free agents to target

Conclusion

This offseason is perhaps the most important for the Los Angeles Lakers in a long time. After trading the farm to acquire Anthony Davis, the team now has to decide how to effectively use their remaining cap-space to build the best possible roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Since signing LeBron James last season, the Lakers put themselves in win-now mode, which has become more evident with the AD trade.

With Woj reporting that the Lakers traded Isaac Bonga, Mo Wagner and Jemerrio Jones to the Wizards, expanding the Anthony Davis trade to a three-team deal, as well Anthony Davis waiving his $4 million trade kicker, the Lakers now have the coveted $32 million in cap space to go after the top-tier players.

The question is this. Do you go all-in on a Tier 1/2 level player, hope to sign some ring-chasing veterans on the cheap, and count on hitting on a couple of draft picks as the team did with Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart?

Or do you disperse the money more evenly, and field a more balanced, but potentially less-talented roster around the two star players you already have? It’s a hard question to answer.

The league has always been about talent. The Kevin Durant-era Warriors proved that when they steamrolled the league en-route to back-to-back titles, and there were the same concerns about depth with them as there are with this Lakers team.

On the flip-side, teams like the ’19 Raptors, ’11 Mavericks, or ’04 Pistons proved that depth at every position is also a winning strategy. The Lakers are fortunate to find themselves in a position where both options are a possibility, it’s now up for Rob Pelinka and company to decide.

Regardless of what happens this offseason, we can safely say that this offseason is shaping up to be an exciting one.