Los Angeles Lakers: Why Talen Horton-Tucker isn’t untouchable in trades

1. The Los Angeles Lakers could lose Talen Horton-Tucker anyway

There are no guarantees that the Los Angeles Lakers will be able to re-sign Talen Horton Tucker. Even though the team has the leverage with him being a restricted free agent, the Lakers’ financial situation could cause the team to bite the bullet and see him sign elsewhere.

Of course, this is all dependent on what kind of offers that THT gets. There was speculation during the season that THT would get a poison-pill offer sheet similar to what Tyler Johnson got from the Brooklyn Nets in 2016.

While teams do not have to offer the max amount per the Gilbert Arenas Provision, the maximum amount is far too much for the Lakers to handle. If a team offers the max to THT he would make mid-level exception value ($9.5 million) next season, a 5% raise the season after that, up to the max salary ($30.9 million) and then a 4.5% raise in year four.

A team could offer THT a four-year, $82.7 million contract if they so please. That might seem unlikely, but one anonymous executive did say that he would max out THT this offseason.

The Lakers are still at a disadvantage regardless of what THT gets. Since the Lakers are over the salary cap, they cannot take the average cap hit over the four years, which makes it more manageable for a team to sign THT. They would have to take the yearly salary-cap hit, which is fine in years one and two but becomes an issue (and risk) in years three and four.

If the options are between THT signing with another team or conducting a sign-and-trade the Lakers are absolutely going to take the sign-and-trade.