The Lakers started clearing the future cap room necessary to add stars to their roster with Tuesday’s trade that sent D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the Nets in exchange for Brook Lopez and the 27th pick in Thursday’s draft.
L.A. would need about $66.3MM in cap space to sign both Paul George and LeBron James to max deals next summer, according to Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. The Lakers currently project to have about $36MM in cap room for 2018 but they can push that figure past $48MM by unloading Julius Randle, who will have a $12.4MM cap hold. Options to create the rest of the needed space include finding a taker for Jordan Clarkson – who will make $12.5MM in 2018/19 – or stretching Luol Deng, who has three years and $53MM+ left on his contract.
If the Lakers wind up trading for George by sending Clarkson and the 27th and 28th picks in this year’s draft to Indiana, then restructures George’s contract to give him a max extension, that would only leave $17.7MM to offer James without another move, Pincus notes.
Several other media members have weighed in on Tuesday’s deal, including what it means for the long-term future of both teams, so let’s round up some more notes…
- The Lakers no longer believed Russell could be part of their core group moving forward, relays Bill Oram of the Orange County Register. Oram adds that the team is now free to draft Lonzo Ball without worrying about a possible conflict with Russell.
- New Lakers president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka are already proving to be better at building a team than the old regime was, opines Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. Pelinka’s familiarity with agents, Ding notes, gives him a significant advantage over former GM Mitch Kupchak.
- The Nets wanted Russell because they were concerned they might wind up without a point guard next summer, according to a tweet from NetsDaily. Brooklyn had been facing a 2018 decision on whether to re-sign Lopez, along with the possibility that Jeremy Lin would opt out.
- There was little interest around the NBA in Lopez and Mozgov, tweets NetsDaily. That’s unsurprising in Mozgov’s case, though somewhat surprising for Lopez, who continues to play well and doesn’t have an albatross of a contract.
- Trading Lopez increases the possibility that the Nets will take a big man with the No. 22 pick on Thursday, per NetsDaily (via Twitter). Still, Mozgov will get a chance to play — he’s the third Russian to play for the franchise in recent years, and team ownership hopes he views that as a unique opportunity (Twitter link).
- ESPN’s Kevin Pelton (Insider-only link) assigns grades for the deal, giving the Nets (A-) a slightly better mark than the Lakers (B).
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
“New Lakers president Magic Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka are already proving to be better at building a team than the old regime was, opines Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report.”.”
Why? Because a top-10 talent like Paul George has made it known that he plans to leave his current team for the Lakers in a year? There isn’t exactly a skill to that. Or is it because the Lakers happen to have the 2nd pick in a draft where the 7th rated player (Jonathan Isaac) is arguably better than the consensus two pick from a year ago (Brandon Ingram)? Again… these aren’t skills.
They are better because they didn’t hand out the Mozgov and Deng contracts which alone makes the old regime awful. The only thing the old regime did was have a few good 2nd round picks in their final years. Since 2010 they were awful decision makers
Yes instead of looking at the new front offices work you should reflect on the old GM and his terrible moves before getting uppity.
Any other Celtics fans heard the rumblings that they actually want Isaac and are looking to trade down again to SAC at 5?
He ain’t bad but not a fit for BOS
Isaac is the perfect fit for Boston.
a much better fit long term than Jackson or Tatum
No, but I like the rumor. If you are going to take a prospect better to take one that has a huge upside.
Yeah that’s what I thought as well. Also, he’s 6′ 11″ with the skills of a guard. It’s incredible.
LeBron isn’t coming to the Lakers. He knows if he leaves the East, he will have a much tougher time making the Finals.
I wonder the intentions when the former GM signed Deng and Mozgov. Did he leave the mess intentionally cuz he knows he gonna get fired or does he believe the salary floor is gonna be hard to reach in the following years. Imagine getting something actually useful out of Russel.
I would fire my brother to for signing
Deng and moz!
Really?Clarkson and the 27th and 28th picks? who the heck do you get with two late first round picks?
What the heck do you get when he leaves in free agency
Oh okay we’ll take George next summer
For Free!
That’s around the range Boston grabbed Avery Bradley in. You can grab low end starters or decent rotation pieces there and occasionally something better if you draft well.
I love the trade they did yesterday. I didn’t think they’d find a way to get rid of those two bad contracts and they found a way to get rid of one. I do think Russell can turn into something special but from what I read he didn’t fit in their plans so why not attach him with Mozgov to clear that cap space and even if that draft pic doesn’t turn into much other than a decent bench player they still got the cap space back from Mozgov. I’d like to see them use the stretch on Deng if they can’t find a take for him. I think if they draft ball he and and Clarkson will mesh better in the backcourt even if Russell does have more talent than Clarkson. When you’re trying to build a team sometimes you have to have those role players because if you have too many players that want the ball in their hands it doesn’t always workout well. I do wish Russell well and I hope he turns into a great player even if it does suck to watch it happen on another team but in the end this move had to made. I also think that even if the Lakers can’t get George they have more tricks up those sleeves and I can’t wait to see what they do over the next few weeks. They just can’t go give my or any stupid contracts. And I really like Lopez even if it turns out to be a one year thing because he can score and rebound.l, the guys can easily average a double per season and by next season once Zubac is ready to take over that context is off the books as well. Curious to see if they make any trades over the next 24 hours or who they sign in free agency. One thing I do know is that they do seem determined to fix this team sooner rather than later.