5. Malik Monk
This one is perhaps the most painful to admit but it really does seem far-fetched that Malik Monk will be a Laker next season. Monk was absolutely the best signing that Rob Pelinka made last summer and that is essentially going to be the detriment that leads to him leaving Los Angeles this summer.
Laker fans may point to the fact that Monk’s agent said that he hopes he will be a Laker forever but at the end of the day, business is business. The most that the Lakers can offer Monk is the taxpayer’s mid-level exception. Monk’s value is far more than the $5 million that he will make on that deal.
Of course, there is the outside chance that the market for Monk simply is not there and he is willing to take another one-year deal on the MLE. However, in seeing the contracts that NBA teams are giving out, it seems much more likely that Monk ends up landing on a team for the nontaxpayer’s MLE, which is worth twice as much.
Business is business at the end of the day and while it would certainly be a shame to see Monk go, no fan can blame Monk for signing with another team for twice as much money; especially after the kind of season that the Lake Show had.
As far as the other players on the roster go, they cannot be included in this list as there is a chance they could return next season. Someone like D.J. Augustin and Wenyen Gabriel played well and could be back-end rotation players. Talen Horton-Tucker could be traded, but his value does not seem to be very high. Carmelo Anthony is buddies with LeBron James and played well enough to get another year.
When it boils down to it, these five Lakers are the ones that will most likely be suiting up in a different uniform after the summer.