Will the Los Angeles Lakers make use of their bi-annual exception this offseason?
As the 2020 NBA offseason gets set to kick off soon. The Los Angeles Lakers have the flexibility to make multiple moves to help them repeat as champions. One of those assets is the availability of the bi-annual exception.
Need a quick rundown of what the bi-annual exception is? Well, it is unique and isn’t available every single year, hence why it’s called bi-annual. It also is different than the mid-level exception in terms of price and amount of years.
The bi-annual exception is available every other year to teams that are over the salary cap but under the tax apron. It cannot be used two seasons in a row. It can also only be signed for one or two years, mid-level exception is one to four years.
It’s a good tool for the Lakers to have because the value of it as we stand, subject to change with salary cap numbers is set at $3,623,000. That allows the team to go out and use it to sign a player and then they can start looking at veteran minimum guys.
If the Lakers decide they’re going to go over the tax apron then this will go away. So look for them to use it early in the free agency period along with the non-taxpayers mid-level exception to maximize full value.
There are plenty of players that they can get that can help them right away. With a shaky free-agent market, there will be players slated to make more that may not get the deal they want. As teams begin to prepare for the monster 2021 free-agent market with multiple stars.
This will help the Los Angeles Lakers as their duo is set, so now they can start putting more pieces around them. By getting players at lesser value when they’re worth more.
So let’s dive in and take a look at three different options for them.