Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry
This is the big fish for the Los Angeles Lakers. As we outlined in our dream offseason scenario, Lowry would have to take a pretty decent pay cut to make this happen. Even in a sign-and-trade, Lowry’s salary would have to be in the $25 million to $28 million range to stay under the tax apron.
While the Lakers would be able to sign minimum deals and utilize things such as the MLE to go over the actual salary cap, any time a team conducts a sign-and-trade they are not allowed to go over the tax apron. Typically teams can go over said apron but get taxed fairly heavily when doing so.
If Lowry wants to be a Laker and is willing to take that pay cut then this could happen. As an unrestricted free agent, he could go to the Toronto Raptors and express his desire to be a Laker but his inability to sign with the team because they have no cap space.
That presents the Raptors with the situation of actually getting something for Lowry instead of letting him walk for free. Any NBA team should do that 100 out of 100 times, especially when they are dealing with the best player in franchise history.
The hope would be that Dennis Schroder does not get a big offer from another team and is willing to take a salary of around $16 million, even if it is less than what he wants. Schroder, Kuzma and the 22nd overall pick could get it done for Lowry, as long as the Raptors don’t get petty and say no.