Optimism Discussion: The Laker's Sky Is Not Falling

LeBron's team for now. George's in a couple years. Lonzo's/Kuzma's/Ingram's/Randle's in 4 years when both those deals expire and all our guys are STILL in their mid-20s.

 

I would say “guy’s gotta eat”, but he’s clearly got food money to spare. And possibly gravy stored in his neck wattle.

 

Lonzo's.

Kidding, I don't have a clue and don't think it will really matter. Let's just get the pieces first

 

We don't have 90, but we have a lot. Ball/Ingram/Hart/Kuzma is 16.7. Deng is an additional 18. If we can swing a couple firsts to get rid of Deng, we could sign Lebron and PG13 for 65 million (maxes) and have about 18 left over. We'd have 6 cap holds at roughly 3 million so that would leave us 15 million to resign Randle.

I think the more likely scenario than dumping Deng for a couple picks is dumping him for one pick in exchange for a slightly less ugly contract. Maybe Josh Powell from Dallas or if we're real lucky, Robin Lopez. We take money back but the "stretch" is smaller. Powell has 20 years total over his deal. that's a 4 million dollar stretch as apposed to 7.5. That gets us closer to Randle's cap hold of 12.5. If we could do it for Robin Lopez, it drops it to less than 3 million and we are sitting right at Randle's cap hold.

 

If we attached Cavs 1st/2020 Laker 1st/Lakers 2nd/Lakers 2020 2nd to Deng and sent him to Chicago for nothing AND we waived our rights to Julius Randle, we'd have:

Lonzo- 7.5
Ingram- 5.8
Kuzma- 1.7
Hart- 1.7
Zubac- 1.5
Bryant- 1.4
Cap Holds- 4.1
Total- 23.7 million

Available Cap Space: 77.3 million. That's enough for LeBron (35.4) and George (31) and still have 14 million left to spend.

I'd rather keep Randle though at that point. I don't think we'd have a better way to invest our money than Randle as our 3rd piece.

 

Zubac and Bryant aren't guaranteed contracts. I was also under the impression PG max was 30.

 

OK. Whatever trade we theoretically would make to get Deng, it just has to leave enough for LBJ and PG13 to get max deals and Randle to have his 12.5 cap hold. It's all so close. I have to admit, if we are like 500k away from Randle's cap hold number and LBJ insists on taking the max, I will be beyond pissed. The dude is worth half a billion dollars. If he can't sacrifice 3-4 million over the life of a contract in order to add a major piece...

 

Life is about perspective



Heck we can even go back farther with Smush, Chucky Atkins, Terrie Brown

 

The max for Paul George is 30% of the cap (101 million) which puts it at 30.3 million. It actually might end up slightly below that.
The max for LeBron James is 35% of the cap which puts it at 35.35 million. Again, it could end up slightly below that figure.

Sorry about that. I was moving quickly and I know you need about 66 million to make it work so my quick brain math was 35 + 31, but there's some change involved.

Still: the key is if you clear Deng off the books, you're in the clear by a good few million. If you can't clear Deng, then you have to waive him and Randle which gives you just enough space. I'll tell you right now, neither George nor LeBron is taking a paycut at this point in their careers, especially LeBron. This is his last big payday before he retires, he's going to get every penny he can. I expect the same from Chris Paul.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Windhorst say “Lakers” so many times in my life. And certainly not with glowing praise, he sounded like he was about to overheat for a second.

 

He certainly was animated.

He mentioned a possibility of clearing nearly 3 max slots. I'm not sure that's accurate. You'd have to attach Ingram to Deng for no returning salary and waive Randle.

Ball, Kuzma, Hart, Zubac, and Bryant are worth 18.4 million altogether after cap holds. That leaves 82.6 million to spend which would mean LeBron/George and you still have 17 million to spend, but I don't think that's worth it.

I'd rather have Ingram and Randle and 3 million in space.