The Los Angeles Lakers have been very busy since the start of NBA free agency on Friday. After making four signings on the first day of free agency, the Lakers followed suit with two moves on Saturday morning.
The first move of the morning was a smaller one as the Lakers signed young big man Jaxson Hayes to a two-year deal. However, LA then followed suit with a bigger move, re-signing D’Angelo Russell to a two-year contract.
The deal is worth $37 million and has a player option in the second season. This was the biggest shoe to fall thus far with Austin Reaves’ restricted free agency being the lone unchecked box for the Lake Show this summer.
Free agent G D’Angelo Russell has agreed on a two-year, $37 million contract to stay with the Los Angeles Lakers, co-heads of @CAA_Basketball Austin Brown and Aaron Mintz along with Antonio Russell tell ESPN. Deal has player option. Lakers secure their starting point guard. pic.twitter.com/ScrZHD7Jio
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2023
This might be surprising to some fans after watching how Russell played in the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets. It was the perfect encapsulation of the flaws in Russell’s game and why he is not that desirable in the grand NBA scheme.
Why the Lakers still re-signed D’Angelo Russell after horrible Western Conference Finals:
This is something that we often see in the NBA. Teams do not want to lose assets and not get anything in return and that is what would have happened if the Lakers let Russell walk in free agency.
Because the Lakers traded for Russell and his Bird Rights, the team have the ability to pay him and go over the traditional NBA salary cap. Even though they still could fall under the luxury tax, LA would not have been able to offer a normal free agent the same salary (assuming the team brings back Reaves).
It makes sense to re-sign Russell for this price as it keeps the contract in the team’s ecosystem. Quite frankly, the contract could have been a lot worse than it is as a two-year deal that is paying less than $20 million is not going to restrict the team in the future.
Is there a world in which D’Lo struggles and is not even a part of the rotation in the playoffs? Absolutely. But re-signing him to this kind of contract opens the door to potentially spin him at the deadline or next offseason if need be.
He will have value as an expiring contract and is a decent in-between salary figure to send in a bigger trade. Maybe there is a world in which DeMar DeRozan is available in January and the Lakers could spin Russell, a young asset and a future protected pick to make a run at the title with half a season of DeRozan.
That kind of move is not as easy to make if Russell simply walks and the Lakers cannot replace him with a similar salary figure. So while he may not have looked like an $18.5 million player in the playoffs, he has that much value to the Lake Show.