Lakers trade 3 for more cap space

As per Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers now have $32m in cap space.


Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers are trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis deal with New Orleans, league sources tell @Zach Lowe and me. Deal clears contracts and creates more cap space for free agency.

Adrian Wojnarowski: Anthony Davis is waiving his $4M trade kicker, league sources tell ESPN.

Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers will start free agency with $32M in salary cap space. The Lakers have the ability to sign a max player now.

They better hope no one gets hurt, as their bench will be like a Drew League summer team.

mrkleen09 wrote:They better hope no one gets hurt, as their bench will be like a Drew League summer team.

I'm not worried much about their bench.
I think Korver, JR Smith and Ariza will be with the Lakers this season.
Also, there are a lot of players who could get a buyout later this season because they are finishing up their contracts and their teams are lottery bound.
Here's a list of some of those players:
Dwight Howard, Tyler Johnson, Whiteside, Dragic, Tristian Thompson, Clarkson, Dellavedova, Marvin Williams, Bazemore, Crowder, CJ Miles, Augustin.
I would think the Lakers could be a destination for waived players.

Good luck with that - rounding out a team with players on minimum contracts is not a winning formula

tjmakz wrote:As per Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers now have $32m in cap space.


Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers are trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis deal with New Orleans, league sources tell @Zach Lowe and me. Deal clears contracts and creates more cap space for free agency.

Adrian Wojnarowski: Anthony Davis is waiving his $4M trade kicker, league sources tell ESPN.

Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers will start free agency with $32M in salary cap space. The Lakers have the ability to sign a max player now.

tj,

I believe this fixes some of the mistakes made by Laker management when the trade was first announced. It makes me wonder why New Orleans management capitulated, it seemed like initial reports indicated that to make the changes that the Lakers wanted to make would negatively impact the Pels.

I don't understand why the Pels would help the Lakers unless it also in some way helped the Pels.

gyso

mrkleen09 wrote:Good luck with that - rounding out a team with players on minimum contracts is not a winning formula

We will see how it plays out.
I'm happy starting the team with Lebron, AD, Kuzma and $32m in cap space.

Well certainly better than that disaster you had last year.

gyso wrote:

tjmakz wrote:As per Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers now have $32m in cap space.


Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers are trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis deal with New Orleans, league sources tell @Zach Lowe and me. Deal clears contracts and creates more cap space for free agency.

Adrian Wojnarowski: Anthony Davis is waiving his $4M trade kicker, league sources tell ESPN.

Adrian Wojnarowski: The Lakers will start free agency with $32M in salary cap space. The Lakers have the ability to sign a max player now.

tj,

I believe this fixes some of the mistakes made by Laker management when the trade was first announced.  It makes me wonder why New Orleans management capitulated, it seemed like initial reports indicated that to make the changes that the Lakers wanted to make would negatively impact the Pels.

I don't understand why the Pels would help the Lakers unless it also in some way helped the Pels.

gyso

We don't know many of the details in the Lakers/Pelicans negotiation.
I don't think the trade being held up until 7/30 was ever an option.
Yes, that would have helped the Lakers. But not allowing the #4 pick to play in summer league because the trade could not be completed until 7/30 was probably never an option.
I'm guessing the Lakers had some leverage to revise the trade to bring in another team.

mrkleen09 wrote:Well certainly better than that disaster you had last year.

True.
The Lakers currently have and will probably have the best odds to win the championship.
They will be very good on paper, but they have a lot to prove.

I don't really see how they can be favored to win anything with only 3 players, and before the Free Agents decide where to to. If Leonard stays in TOR, are they not the odds on favorite to win again? The lakers need 15 players. How do they get the other 12? JR? Carmelo? Kyrie? Good Luck with that.

tjmakz wrote:
The Lakers currently have and will probably have the best odds to win the championship.

red16russ11 wrote:I don't really see how they can be favored to win anything with only 3 players, and before the Free Agents decide where to to.  If Leonard stays in TOR, are they not the odds on favorite to win again?  The lakers need 15 players.  How do they get the other 12?  JR? Carmelo?  Kyrie?  Good Luck with that.

Odds to win future championships change on a daily basis.
It's a prediction of future outcomes.
If the Lakers don't do as well as expected, their odds will go down.
If the Lakers do well in free agency, they will be a heavily favored team to win the championship or will have the highest odds.
Lakers fans are not sweating at all about filling out the roster.
Building the final 2019-20 roster through free agency, trades and waiver pick ups will take many months to complete.

TJ

Signing James last year and making the trade for AD is huge.  Having 2 of the top 5 ELITE players in the NBA is special.   

It was a good move for LAL and also a good move that the Celtics kept their powder dry.

Keeping Kuzma as a 3rd option should work.  They have to build out the team around those guys and since they have an open max player slot, they should be fine. 

Celtics fans appear to be a little pissed off.  That is a normal reaction to being rejected by high end talent.  

The Celtics will continue to rebuild their team but I do not expect the Celtics and Lakers to match up in the championship this season.

LA is ready to land another big fish (or two).

The question is, how long are they going to be tied to just a handful of large contracts that might keep them from building solid depth?

Building a team with an eye to the future is fine and dandy - but you want to be sure that when you become a legimate contender that it helps to be in a position to add a final pierce of the puzzle if needed

swish

Who cares about Lakers trades and Lakers cap space or cap issues?

I care a whole hell of a lot more about Celtics getting heading back in the positive direction.
Some big guys and some depth are more important than anything that relates to the Lakers.

wideclyde wrote:Who cares about Lakers trades and Lakers cap space or cap issues?

I care a whole hell of a lot more about Celtics getting heading back in the positive direction.
Some big guys and some depth are more important than anything that relates to the Lakers.

I do - since our future successes will be closely related to just how successful other teams in the league figure to be in the months ahead. I find the "other side of the story" broadens my interest and view of the league in general.

swish

Since we were talking about the Lakers roster, here’s my guess of who the Lakers will add in the near future.
Jimmy Butler - SG
George Hill - PG (he should be waived by Milwaukee in the next 3 days)

Since Kawhi and Kyrie are probably not signing with the Lakers, my third choice is Jimmy Butler. He can guard the other teams best guard or wing player. This will take pressure off of LeBron on the defensive side of the court.

tjmakz wrote:
The Lakers currently have and will probably have the best odds to win the championship.

Welp.

https://www.complex.com/sports/2019/07/los-angeles-clippers-favorites-betting-nba-finals-championship

mrkleen09 wrote:

tjmakz wrote:
The Lakers currently have and will probably have the best odds to win the championship.

Welp.

https://www.complex.com/sports/2019/07/los-angeles-clippers-favorites-betting-nba-finals-championship

In terms of value, Miami at 80/1 seems decent

KyleCleric wrote:
In terms of value, Miami at 80/1 seems decent

Let me know how it turns out