The biggest wave of free agency signings has already passed for the Los Angeles Lakers but there is still business to be made. This Monday the team made a relatively big signing, bringing back Rajon Rondo after he was waived by the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Lakers now have two more roster spots to use and several different routes they could go down. There is the potential of the team signing three and D wing James Ennis, who is perhaps the best wing remaining.
There is also the potential of the team signing a young talent, something they seemingly indicated that they wanted to do when they opted not to re-sign Jared Dudley. Finally, there is the potential of bringing in DeAndre Jordan, who is reportedly working on a buyout with the Brooklyn Nets and has garnered potential interest from the Lakers.
Those are three different moves the team can make with two roster spots, one of which they might not even use in the offseason. It appears that the most likely situation for the Lakers is to save a roster spot for an in-season move, which does not give the team much flexibility.
Rob Pelinka can create more flexibility by parting ways with Marc Gasol. It is reportedly already not a guarantee that he returns next season and while he was not as disappointing as some fans think, he did still regress last year in LA and is likely going to further regress at his age.
If the Lakers do want to move on then the hope is likely that he will retire so the Lakers can wipe their hands clean with the contract. However, turning down $2.6 million is a hard thing to do and if Gasol wanted to retire he probably would have done so by now.
Thus, the Los Angeles Lakers might have to move Gasol themselves, but how? The team is so far over the salary cap and no team is seemingly going to want to take on Gasol at this point in his career.
It sounds bleak, but there is a way.
How the Los Angeles Lakers can trade Marc Gasol:
The thing that the Los Angeles Lakers have to target in order to trade Marc Gasol is non-guaranteed contracts. This is the same thing the team did to trade JaVale McGee last offseason to get the cap space to bring in Gasol.
There are plenty of teams that have non-guaranteed contracts on the books that can make a trade happen. It is not that difficult to find a potential trade partner or trade package that could make sense.
For example, the Boston Celtics have Jabari Parker on a non-guaranteed $2.2 million contract this season. That is someone who the Lakers could target, trading Gasol and a future second-round pick (they have two in 2023) for Parker.
NBA history tells us that the Celtics would happily accept. They would be getting a veteran presence at center that can help provide depth and prove to be a valuable veteran for Robert Williams to lean on AND a second-round pick for someone who might not make the roster anyway.
The Lakers would get Parker, or whichever non-guaranteed contract player the team targets, with the intent of instantly releasing him. The team would only be on the books for $100,000 instead of Gasol’s $2.6 million, which is very important with the team being so high over the luxury tax.
The Los Angeles Lakers then open up a roster spot and could replace it with Jordan and add either a young free agent or James Ennis while still having the open roster spot.
If the Los Angeles Lakers really want to part ways with Marc Gasol then it is easily doable.