5 massive what-ifs that hang heavy over this ugly Lakers season

3. What if the Los Angeles Lakers re-signed Alex Caruso?

To the returning, loyal Lake Show Life audience: I apologize for bringing up Alex Caruso for the 100th time in the last eight months. This is how I deal with the fact that the Lakers let their most valuable role player walk away because they didn’t want to make a bigger tax payment.

Yes, there would have been big implications on the luxury tax if the Lakers signed Caruso to a deal this offseason. However, the difference between the Lakers’ offer and Caruso’s offer was marginal, so they were willing to take on a certain tax payment and started pinching pennies with him and let him walk away.

Last I checked this is a multi-billion dollar franchise that has an absurdly high bottom line every single year. I think they could have afforded that extra tax hit. This is not the Oklahoma City Thunder we are talking about.

The Lakers probably would not be title contenders with Caruso on this year’s team with how wrong it has gone for LA this season. However, they would certainly be better as they would have retained one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.

Not only that, but they would have retained him for multiple years as well, making it more likely that the team can actually build a contender after this Westbrook fiasco.