2. Talen Horton-Tucker getting a poison-pill offer
Talen Horton-Tucker is a restricted free agent this offseason and most times that means that the team will be able to bring him back. Teams are able to match any offer sheet given to a restricted free agent, eliminated the chance of THT simply leaving.
However, there is a path that leads to THT leaving the team. If another team offers THT a poison-pill offer sheet then there is not much the Lakers can do. And according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report, one Eastern Conference executive said he would max out Talen Horton-Tucker.
The poison-pill offer has been compared to Tyler Johnson, who signed a four-year, $50 million contract back in 2016. These contracts are back-loaded with THT getting the value of a mid-level exception next season ($9.5 million) a 5% raise the following season, and then up to the maximum salary the following two years.
Let’s say a team really loves THT and is willing to pay him $25 million in year three and then the 4.5% raise that comes with it the following year. His contract would then be worth roughly $70.6 million.
A team that has enough cap space can offer this contract to THT as long as they have enough space to take on the average cap hit. So while they will pay him different amounts each year, the cap hit will even out, making it easier to take on. The average cap hit is $17.6 million. There are teams that can afford that.
However, since the Lakers are over the salary cap they cannot take the average cap hit if they were to offer, they would have to take the yearly cap hit. Not only would a big offer also make them pay more in year one, but it would create a $25 million and $26.1 million cap hit in years three and four for a player who really hasn’t proven to be worth that much yet.
There is a good chance that a team does not offer this much but if they even offer $20 million in year three it could be enough for the Lakers to simply let THT walk for free.