Redoing the entire Los Angeles Lakers offseason to make a true contender
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers re-sign Alex Caruso
The Los Angeles Lakers should have re-signed Alex Caruso even with the Russell Westbrook trade. The Lakers decided to pinch pennies and undersell their most important perimeter defender from the last two years.
Now, the Lakers have one of the worst defenses in the entire league while Caruso is thriving with the Bulls. It is not like his price tag was all that high and the Lakers can afford the tax hits that would have come along with Caruso.
Caruso is making $8.6 million this season and the main reason why the Lakers did not want to re-sign him is that he would have increased the tax bill by $34 million because of the way the luxury tax is tiered.
I understand why the Lakers didn’t do it but that does not mean that I agree. That tax payment doesn’t restrict the cap next year so there isn’t a competitive advantage that would hurt the team in future years. It is just money that would decrease the Lakers’ bottom line at the end of the season.
This is a billion-dollar sports franchise that we are talking about. One of the five most valuable in the United States. This is not the Kansas City Royals. The Lakers could have afforded it, and in this alternate reality, the tax bill would have been slightly less as they would have saved $3.2 million by not trading for Westbrook.