Why the Los Angeles Lakers would say yes to this Jarrett Allen trade:
The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to improve this offseason and don’t have very many means to do so. Signing and trading Dennis Schroder allow the team to utilize the money that they can only spend on Schroder while spending it on someone else.
The Lakers would be utilizing the Bird Rights that they have on Schroder to sign a deal that takes them over the salary cap and would then be trading said contract to the Cavaliers (along with Kuzma) to get matching money in Allen.
The team would not be able to outright sign Allen and hope that the Cavaliers don’t match the offer sheet. They have to manipulate the cap in such a way to use Schroder’s Bird Rights to then transfer it to Allen.
This then gives the team the long-term answer at the center position it currently does not have. The Lakers need a talented center that will not only fill in for a season but give multiple seasons to LA. Allen is extremely young and would help the team in 2021 as well as 2025.
Is it a little bit of an overpay for Allen? Yeah, probably. However, if there are no other sign-and-trade options for the Lakers and they don’t want to spend the money on Schroder then they might as well spend it on a position of need. It is easier to talk yourself into overpaying for a young player that will only get better than an old player who will only get worse.
As far as Kuzma, trading him has never seemed more likely and the Los Angeles Lakers really would not be losing much by trading him. He is easily replaceable at this point.