Welcome Lake Show Life fans to the NBA’s offseason’s first episode of Lakers Rumors. It’s the media circus where every free agent or major trade deal is linked to your Los Angeles Lakers. Most Lakers outlets will give you the dreams of yet another potential super team for LeBron James. Lake Show Life will bring the reality. This episode’s guest stars of Lakers Rumors are…Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan!
The staff of Lake Show Life would like to extend it’s congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks, who replaced the Los Angeles Lakers as reigning World Champions this past week. The staff is also relieved. Free agency rumors weren’t going to start until the NBA season was over and the Larry O’Brien trophy was raised.
Laker Nation, buckle your seatbelts because this is going to be a very interesting summer for the Los Angeles Lakers. Despite the fact they don’t have cap space or many options to improve the roster, the constant Lakers rumors will have them linked to almost every big-name player available in free agency and trade talks over the next few weeks.
Rob Pelinka and the Lakers front office got the book keeping started by extending a qualifying offer to Talen Horton-Tucker making him a restricted free agent. Now the goal is to find players that can provide shooting and playmaking.
According to Brad Turner of the L.A. Times, a couple of options happens to be the longtime backcourt partners of the Toronto Raptors…Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. According to Turner, BOTH PLAYERS have an interest in signing with the Lakers. Even better, DeMar will take a pay cut.
"DeRozan, who starred at Compton High and USC, has interest in returning home to play for the Lakers, even if it is for less than the $27.7 million he earned last season in San Antonio, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter."
Now this is what most media outlets will sell to Los Angeles Lakers fans because Lakers rumors sell like hot cakes for media outlets.
- The Lakers could find that veteran presence in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to make a championship run.
- Both players can go where they want this summer and both former Raptors stars have shown interest in the Lakers.
- After all, these two used to play together and they were best friends while on the Raptors.
- If these two were to come to the purple and gold, it would be a match-made in heaven and the 18th NBA championship would be confirmed with a healthy Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
Look, there’s no doubt that the addition of both Lowry and DeRozan, or even just one of them, would put the Lakers back near the top of the list as championship favorites. It’s also known to long time readers of Lake Show Life that Lakers rumors are just that until Rob Pelinka makes a move. The man does not talk until there’s an announcement.
Starting on Draft night on Thursday, look for the Lakers to possibly make some big moves that could find guys like Dennis Schroder and Kyle Kuzma on other teams.
Both of these players struggled in the postseason (also read…stink) and the Lakers will be looking for veterans that can match the energy of the championship-winning team from 2020 at a fraction of the cost.
Of course, the Lakers would need to clear out some cap space in order to make any of this to work. It seems polite for both Lowry and DeRozan to say they are content with taking a pay cut if it means competing for a championship with LeBron and AD, but it’s a different situation when the numbers are added up.
Speaking of numbers, let’s look over the Lakers’ books.
Lakers Rumors get a little more clear after you pay the superstars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis!
The most debated topic in the Lake Show Life comment sections for the past few weeks is the Lakers salary cap. There has been plenty of misinformation by some but Lake Show Life will break down the reality of the situation.
- The top four earners on the Los Angeles Lakers (LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kyle Kuzma and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope) collect $102.6 million in salary.
- As of this writing, there are potentially ten free agents on the roster.
- The Lakers can offer a mid level exception of $9.7 million if they DON’T bring back any free agents.
- With Montrezl Harrell reportedly considering to opt in to his player option (with the deadline to accept being July 31st), the exception DROPS to $5.9 million.
- The Lakers can trade the 2021 first round pick after making the selection for the team they make the sign and trade deal with on draft night. Afterwards, they can’t make another trade until 2027.
How much are they paying LeBron James and Anthony Davis?
About $76.2 million between the two of them. Then they have to start paying Kyle Kuzma’s three year extension at $13 million annually. KCP gets his $13 million, Marc Gasol looks like he will be back at $2,692,991, Alfonzo McKinnie has a team option at $1.9 million (Say goodbye to him!).
The Lakers have six unrestricted free agents to deal with including Dennis Schroder, whose name will be prominent throughout the rest of this article.
The Lakers have a salary cap number of $112,414,000 to deal with according to Sportrac.
Confused? Good. Now let’s go shopping and see how the Lakers can make Kyle Lowry a Laker and not just another chapter in Lakers rumors.
Lakers Rumors: Kyle Lowry can be had in a sign and trade including…the blond guy in the picture!
It has been crystal clear to the website staff and the Lakers fans that the two things the Lakers need next season are shooting and playmaking. Kyle Lowry is the one player who would help solve both of those issues potentially with the quickness.
The Lakers made a run at Lowry at the trade deadline, but would not part with Talen Horton-Tucker in addition to Dennis Schroder and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to get a deal done. Lake Show Life reported that the team would stay silent at the trade deadline and depend on the buyout market.
Though the Lakers didn’t acquire Lowry at the trade deadline, Lakers rumors around the NBA claim that he remains interested in coming to Hollywood.
Now how does this happen? Yep, a sign and trade deal.
If the Lakers want to sign Lowry then it likely would come via a sign-and-trade with the Toronto Raptors, potentially involving Schroder, Kuzma and possibly Harrell. Here’s the other side of the equation.
- Dennis Schroder would have to agree to a sign and trade by signing a contract. Kind of a tough sell to a point guard that the Lakers clearly don’t want because he burned most of the bridges in the organization.
- It was reported that Schroder and Kuzma feuded throughout parts of the season. Would these players want to continue the feud on a rebuilding team? Would Toronto?
- Montrezl Harrell probably would decline his option if he caught wind of a trade to Toronto.
- Assuming all of this worked out, the deal would hard-cap the Lakers, leaving them basically with no choice but to fill out the roster with minimum players.
As much as the Dennis Schroder sign and trade scenario is floating around, Dennis is a unrestricted free agent. He reportedly has options according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer.
"League sources expect Chicago and New York to emerge as Schroder suitors, and both could be conducted via sign-and-trade—although Knicks certainly have the cap space to sign him outright. New York will likely have north of $50 million to spend this summer."
A couple of roster moves by the Bulls and they could avoid the sign and trade route as well. With Schroder’s current deal ending, the Lakers will need to do a sign-and-trade if they want to get some value out of the 6-foot-3 point guard.
The Lakers at this point would have to pray that Masai Ujiri, lightens his stance on wanting Talen Horton Tucker or get sold on a partially guaranteed third year on KCP’s contract and take Kyle Kuzma.
Kyle Lowry said nothing about a pay cut. DeMar DeRozan said he would. Let’s look at how much of a pay cut he would have to take…
Lakers Rumors: Anyone that will take a $22 million pay cut in this economy just to play for the Lakers!
It seems that the Lakers and DeRozan has flirted with joining forces a couple of times in the past. In 2016, the team tried to use their huge cap space to bring DeRozan, but he decided to remain with the Toronto Raptors on a max deal.
Then, last year, the team was reportedly interested in trading Kyle Kuzma and Danny Green for DeRozan, before ultimately opting to deal Green in exchange for…Dennis Schroder.
Let’s assume that recent reports that indicate Harrell is opting in to his contract is true. Where does that leave the Lakers and DeMar?
The Lake Show would have one mid-level exception to offer. Turner mentioned that DeRozan would be willing to take a pay cut to play for the Lakers, but does anyone believe that any NBA player these days will go from making $27.7 million to $5.9 million? In this economy? At the back end of his career?
Now this not to say that it can’t happen. Remember Karl Malone and Gary Payton took huge pay cuts to make a championship run back in 2004. Both were gone by season’s end.
The Lakers can renounce some of their own free agents to clear cap room, but that would mean losing good players, something that Rob Pelinka probably won’t do for DeRozan at this point of his career.
The NBA free agency doesn’t start until Aug. 2, so there is still plenty of time to see what moves Rob Pelinka will be able to pull off this summer. Pelinka is known to swing for the fence while balling on a budget. If he wants these players, it will take a lot of furniture moving to get them.