JULY 26, 1:14pm: The Lakers have officially re-signed Ennis, the team announced today in a press release. Barring another cost-cutting move, it appears L.A. is now capped out.
JULY 25, 3:39pm: The Lakers have reached an agreement to bring back free agent guard Tyler Ennis, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN (Twitter link). Shelburne reports that Ennis will get a two-year, minimum salary deal with a team option on the second year.
Ennis, who will turn 23 next month, was selected by the Suns with the 18th overall pick in the 2014 draft, but has bounced around the league since then. In addition to spending a little time in Phoenix, Ennis has also had stints with the Bucks, Rockets, and Lakers, appearing in 132 total regular season contests.
While Ennis hasn’t been able to stick with one team for long, the Lakers “really liked” what they saw from him down the stretch in 2016/17 after acquiring him at the deadline, tweets Shelburne. The Canadian point guard averaged 7.7 PPG, 2.4 APG, and 0.9 SPG, with a shooting line of .451/.389/.864 in 22 games as a Laker. All of those averages would have been career highs for a full season.
The Lakers were rumored to be considering Ennis, Derrick Rose, and other guards in recent weeks. The club displayed serious interest in Rose, but the former MVP committed to the Cavaliers on Monday night, prompting L.A. to move quickly to lock up Ennis.
The timing of Ennis’ signing will be interesting to keep an eye on. Currently, the Lakers have $815,615 in cap room remaining, which is exactly enough to sign a rookie, such as Thomas Bryant. The club could still sign Bryant using the minimum salary exception after signing Ennis and going over the cap, but a deal with that exception is limited to two years. If the Lakers wait to officially finalize Ennis’ contract, it’s likely a signal that they hope to use that remaining cap room to sign Bryant or another rookie to a three- or four-year pact.
Hey Luke – if the Lakers decline his option next year would he still be a RFA? He at one time was on a rookie contract (but won’t be on one now)…
Pretty sure he’ll be a UFA, but I’ll double-check.
I sure hope our luck changes next offseason with all that money to spend and all those free agents out there
We need to at least make a run for the
Playoffs first.
The Wild cut him already? (Think about it.)
I get it and got a good chuckle, but most people don’t even watch hockey, let alone care for it.
Bummer on d.rose. Rather have ennis than
Clark.
Can you explain to me how waiting to sign Ennis affects Bryant’s possible signing. Why is waiting necessary? I don’t get it.
The Lakers’ team salary is currently $816K below the cap line — $816K is the amount of the rookie minimum salary. If they sign Ellis using the minimum salary exception (since his minimum salary is larger than a rookie’s), they’ll be over the cap and won’t have that tiny slice of cap room anymore.
Either way, they’ll be able to sign Bryant, but once they use up their cap room, they’re limited to two-year deals (using the minimum salary exception or room exception). When you sign a player with cap room, you can go up to four years. The Lakers would probably like to lock in Bryant for 3-4 years rather than just 2, so they’ll probably try to get something done with him before officially adding any more salary.
Oooook, I get it now. Thank you for that explanation. It makes total sense to me now. So you’re basically suggesting that they may wanna keep Bryant for longer than a 2 year deal. Which is obviously the length of Ennis’ deal. Interesting.
Yeah, basically I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after signing KCP they left themselves with exactly the amount of cap room needed to sign a rookie to a longer-term minimum salary contract. We’ll see what happens!
I can’t wait for the regular season to start!! London, KCP and Showtime 2.0. Damn!!!
Spell Check sucks. Lonzo not London and, oh yeah, Kyle the
2nd coming of Kobe!
Stay off the weeeeed