Looking ahead: The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2020-21 Season
Six Los Angeles Lakers are signed for next season: LeBron, Kuzma, Danny Green, Alex Caruso, Talen Horton-Tucker and Quinn Cook (not fully guaranteed contract). Five others (Davis, Avery Bradley, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo) have player options. The remaining players on the roster are unrestricted free agents.
When the NBA salary cap is calculated each year, “basketball-related income” is the primary ingredient. The shortened season and its resumption without fans in attendance will obviously reduce revenue this year.
The league is likely to accordingly decrease the salary cap. As a result, fewer teams will be under the cap, meaning that free agency will probably be a less lucrative process. Therefore, more potential free agents than usual will likely exercise their player options and stay with their current teams rather than risk testing what could be a non-competitive free agency this off-season.
That could include all five Lakers with player options. Even AD may well postpone signing a long-term contract until after next season. He and his agent may believe he’d be better off financially to accept his $27.5 million option for next season and then pursue a longer deal starting in 2021-22.
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Before Covid-19, DeMarcus Cousins had been rehabilitating with the team even though the Lakers had waived him. If he has recovered sufficiently from his torn ACL by the offseason, he’s a good bet to return to the Lakers next season.
Just what impact a reduced cap might have on players like Dwight Howard, Markieff Morris, Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith is unknown. In the case of the latter three, we will soon find out how well they fit in with the team.
Still, overall the chances are good that next year’s roster will closely resemble this year’s. Since the current team is a championship contender, that’s good news for Lakers fans, and represents a feather in Pelinka’s cap.
Returning back to the current season, what moves did Pelinka make since the abrupt resignation of Magic Johnson to build this roster?