Lakers Rumors: Could Marc Gasol be headed for a buyout?
By Ronald Agers
Lakers Rumors (Facts!): Marc Gasol’s contract is good for the Lakers salary cap!
Rob Pelinka has had his fair share of criticism over the lack of activity (Presumably!) at the trading deadline. Not bringing in Kyle Lowry rubbed some fans the wrong way. Those fans are only looking at part of the story. The team has a ton of roster decisions in the offseason with a tax bill to deal with as well.
First, listen to all of the challenges Rob Pelinka has to deal with in the offseason alone.
Confused yet? In a nutshell, Marc Gasol potentially could be the only respective big man on the roster next year (We are excluding Anthony Davis here!).
Gasol, 36, signed a two-year deal with the Lakers this past offseason which means he has a low number on the books next season. Because the Lakers don’t have the “Bird Rights” to Andre Drummond or Montrezl Harrell, the team will lose Andre Drummond (Oh you bought the “I want to be a Laker a long time speech?) and will have to schmooze Trezl in to opting into his second year to keep him from following Drummond out the door for his big payday. With all of the contracts this offseason (LeBron, AD, Kuzma, and KCP) the Lakers are cap strapped.
To those that believe that playing with LeBron James is the price of admission, Lake Show Life will show Drummond’s salary for this year and try not to roll our collective eyes.
The contract for Andre Drummond in Los Angeles is the amount- $794,536- that he gave back in his buyout with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) March 28, 2021
The Lakers will have a $554,988 cap hit.
The Lakers are $954,349 below the hard cap and have enough room to sign a 15th player.
The next year the Lakers can only pay a max of $5.9 million without adding to their luxury tax woes. That is well below Drummond’s market value.
Next. 50 greatest Lakers of all-time. dark
That’s Lake Show Life’s take on the Marc Gasol rumors. That’s exactly what all of this is, Lakers rumors. If Andre Drummond goes crazy in the stat sheet the next couple of weeks, please refer back to this article because Marc Gasol is going nowhere.