The Los Angeles Lakers pull off a sign-and-trade for Mike Conley
It is absolutely possible for the Los Angeles Lakers to pull off a sign-and-trade for MIke Conley. While other NBA pundits may call this wishful thinking for the Lakers, we previously explained why a sign-and-trade is possible. Most notably, it is because Conley has all the leverage in the situation.
If Conley wants to be a Laker then he is going to be a Laker. The only thing that would stop it is the Utah Jazz being petty and letting him walk for free, but teams don’t do that. They get something for the asset instead of nothing.
The trade would be the following:
Dennis Schroder would have to agree to a sign-and-trade for this to work but he has every reason to do so. His market value is not as high as he perceives and the way to make the most money is to sign with the Lakers using his Bird Rights, regardless of if he actually plays in LA.
In this trade, we are assuming that Lowry signs a deal that is worth $23 million next season (we will explain the numbers at the end).
The Lakers upgrade significantly at point guard and get their third star while losing a replaceable player in Kyle Kuzma and the 22nd overall pick. Because of the Steipen Rule, this trade would have to be agreed to in principle before the draft, the Lakers would make the 22nd overall selection (based on who Toronto wants) then would trade said player to Toronto as part of the package.
The Los Angeles Lakers are well over the salary cap at this point and have to utilize the mid-level exception as well as minimum contracts to fill out the rest of the roster. Let’s start with the MLE.