Why the Los Angeles Lakers could regret not trading Talen Horton-Tucker
By Jason Reed
2. There is still no guarantee that Talen Horton-Tucker is on the Los Angeles Lakers next season
It would be one thing if the future of Talen Horton-Tucker was guaranteed, or if the Los Angeles Lakers had another two seasons to see him develop and then offer him a contract. That is not the case. There is a chance, and a legitimate one at that, that THT is not a Laker past this season.
THT is a restricted free agent after this season meaning that the Lakers have the ability to match any offer sheet that he signs. However, there is the possibility of THT getting a poison-pill offer sheet from a rebuilding team with cap space.
The poison pill offer starts with a low salary that increases in the final years of the deal. In theory, he will be a low cap hit next season, which should make him available for the Lakers. The problem is that if the Lakers are over the salary cap then they have to take his average salary over the four years as the cap hit.
That obviously helps in the backend of the contract but with Dennis Schroder’s potential extension and a new contract for Alex Caruso, there is a possibility that THT is simply too expensive for the Lakers to retain.
This is reminiscent of the Julius Randle situation. The team refused to trade him despite him having legitimate trade value in his last season and let him walk to the New Orleans Pelicans, opting not to match the offer sheet.
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They got nothing for Randle and it is not remembered because they eventually won the title, but the same exact thing could happen with Talen Horton-Tucker.