3. The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have a very busy offseason
There is going to be a lot of activity for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2021 offseason. Perhaps they will get an early start by getting eliminated from Phoenix but there are several players that have to be addressed.
After his disastrous showing in Game 5, the Los Angeles Lakers should be convinced to let Dennis Schroder walk. The team already should have told him to kick rocks after he turned down the $84 million contract offer and this ugly showing is just the icing on the cake.
The Lakers are legitimately blessed that Schroder said no to that offer as it would have been a massive overpay. Let that be someone else’s problem.
The team also has to figure out what to do with Alex Caruso and Talen Horton-Tucker, both of which are free agents. Do they bring back Wesley Matthews? Montrezl Harrell is all-but-gone after essentially not playing in the playoffs and tweeting about it. Marc Gasol could retire and cannot be trusted to be the starting five and Andre Drummond should absolutely not be overpaid.
Can the Lakers land a big fish like Kyle Lowry? Do they re-sign THT only to package him alongside Kyle Kuzma in a trade for a third star? What does the starting five even look like next year? You could legitimately make the case that there will be an entirely new starting five around LeBron and AD next year.
And while necessary, this opens the door for the same problem that the team had this year in not knowing its identity.