The Los Angeles Lakers season has officially come to a close and the page has now turned to focusing on the upcoming offseason to maximize the team’s chances at winning the NBA Championship in 2024.
As is the case every offseason, there is going to be some roster turnover for the Lakers that will result in players finding new homes for the 2023-24 season. Thankfully, the Lakers have more foundational pieces set in place this offseason but there are still some familiar faces that fans should be prepared to say goodbye to.
6 Lakers who won’t be returning next season:
1. D’Angelo Russell
The Western Conference Finals were really bad for D’Angelo Russell. Russell put together several solid performances in the playoffs and it seemed like he punched his ticket to come back to the Lakers as a result.
However, the Nuggets were able to do something that the Grizzlies and Warriors could not do and that was attack Russell’s weaknesses. Russell was a defensive liability and was making poor decisions on the offensive end that hurt the team.
There is a case to be made that the Lakers are better off just bringing Russell back so they do not lose the asset altogether. However, this ownership group probably doesn’t want to go over the tax again and has to pay Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. Russell’s Western Conference Finals just made the inevitable decision easier for the front office.
2. Lonnie Walker IV
Lonnie Walker IV had a bit of a resurgence in the NBA Playoffs that started against the Golden State Warriors. After falling out of the rotation and not playing outside of garbage time in round one, Walker became a prominent rotation player and even won Game 4 for the Lakers to take a 3-1 series lead.
While Walker was a great story and that may have helped his future, there are simply too many other things that the Lakers need to focus on this offseason. There are several impending free agents that are going to be higher on the priority list than Walker.
Plus, his postseason heroics probably raised his value in a thin free-agent class this summer. It was great to watch but the Lakers are not going to get in a bidding war with a player that they initially were not comfortable with even playing in the playoffs.
Lakers not re-signing Lonnie Walker IV is all about the bigger picture
If Walker is willing to return to Los Angeles on a minimum deal then great but the chances of that happening are slim to none. While the emotional reaction is to ask for him to return after that second round against the Warriors, it is not the best decision in the grand scheme of things.
Walker made the MLE contract he was given worth it with his performance in the playoffs. But let’s not pretend like it was always pretty.
3. Malik Beasley
The Los Angeles Lakers acquired Malik Beasley during the trade deadline as part of the Russell Westbrook trade. The Westbrook trade reinvented the roster and is ultimately why the team was able to make the NBA Playoffs and make a much deeper run than any pundits were expecting.
Beasley was one of the most anticipated players to join the Lakers in this trade because of what he could add in floor spacing. Beasley’s defense left more to be desired but he had shown in his NBA career that he could be an elite off-ball shooter that could really make a mark in the playoffs.
But that is not what happened. Beasley struggled to hit shots from three in the regular season and those struggles increased once the lights got bright and the playoffs began. As a result, Beasley was completely taken out of the playoff rotation in favor of other options.
Malik Beasley is too expensive for the Lakers to keep
If Malik Beasley was on a cheap contract for the 2023-24 season then the Lakers would absolutely keep him around and hope he re-finds his form. But that is not the case at all as he would cost a pretty penny if LA were to keep him around.
The Lakers have a club option on Beasley’s deal that would pay him $16.5 million next season. It is hard to pay a one-dimensional role player that much money when he isn’t even utilizing his one dimension.
Whether it be via a straight-up opt-out or via a trade that the Lakers work out, Beasley’s days in the purple and gold should definitely be over.
4. Mo Bamba
Mo Bamba is another trade acquisition from the 2023 deadline that did not quite work out for the Lakers. This one is painful as well as Mamba really looked like he could be a discount version of Myles Turner for the Lakers.
On paper, Bamba’s ability to provide rim protection while also being able to space the floor on offense would play perfectly next to Anthony Davis. Bamba would allow Davis to free roam more on defense while also playing the five on offense.
It was a fit that we never got to see. Ham never really gave this Bamba-Davis lineup a try and then Bamba sprained his ankle and missed a chunk of time at the end of the regular season. Without having a chance to experiment with lineups, Bamba was unable to earn a spot in the rotation.
Like Beasley, Mo Bamba is too expensive for the Lakers
Bamba is set to make $10.3 million next season on a non-guaranteed contract. Los Angeles has the ability to get out of the deal with no money owed and that seems like the mots likely outcome at this point in time.
There is a very slim chance the Lakers could try and sign Bamba to a two-year deal that pays him far less but that will depend on his market. At the end of the day, LA doesn’t need to pay Bamba $10.3 million when there are so many depth centers that can be had at the league minimum.
5. Troy Brown Jr.
LeBron James and Klutch Sports absolutely have an impact on the decisions that the Lakers make, regardless of how much the team tries to deny it. That was evident last summer when the first three free agents signed were all Klutch clients.
Those three free agents were Walker, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Troy Brown Jr. While the signings were inconsequential, the fact that the team so quickly signed Klutch guys shows that there is some kind of collaboration there.
That collaboration likely won’t keep Brown in LA as the Lakers have better fish to fry and can, quite frankly, improve. Brown showed enough with the Lakers to get him a new contract somewhere else next season but it likely won’t be in Los Angeles.
Troy Brown Jr’s playoff minutes for the Lakers tell the entire story
Brown’s role in the rotation for the Lakers started off well against the Memphis Grizzlies and slowly went down as the playoffs went along. By the time the Lakers got into the thick of the playoffs, Brown became someone who Darvin Ham only called upon in garbage time.
Not every regular-season rotation guy is going to play in the playoffs and Brown still has value as a regular-season player to the right team. That team is not the Lakers, who would benefit more from a better defender and a more reliable shooter in his place.
6. Tristan Thompson
If Tristan Thompson signs with the Lakers and nobody is there to see him play, did he ever actually sign with the Lakers? LeBron’s former teammate with the Cleveland Cavaliers signed with the Lakers shortly before the playoffs began and was never meant to be someone who actually played.
That being said, Thompson was able to log some minutes in garbage time to at least say that he helped during the Lakers’ playoff push. But at the end of the day, the Lakers signed Thompson for different reasons that won’t get him a spot on the roster to start next season.
Los Angeles signed him just to have an extra body in the case of an emergency. That is always smarter than just leaving a roster spot vacant. The team also signed him because of his experience in the playoffs with LeBron, which likely played a factor in the team’s series against the Golden State Warriors.
Tristan Thompson will struggle to sign any NBA deal, let alone with the Lakers
Keep in mind that Thompson went the entire 2022-23 season unsigned until the Lakers brought him along for the playoffs. Just like with J.R. Smith in 2020, this playoff run with LA was likely Thompson’s last hoorah in the NBA.
The NBA has simply passed Thompson by and with him being far gone from his prime, there is no reason for a team to bring him in.