The Pelicans’ decision to move the No. 4 pick to the Hawks today makes it likely that the Anthony Davis trade to the Lakers will be finalized on July 6, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The Lakers emerged from the lottery with the No. 4 pick and agreed to trade it to the Pelicans as part of the Davis deal. New Orleans reached an agreement to forward the pick to the Hawks just prior to the draft.
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and the Pelicans’ top executive, David Griffin, agreed that if a third team was looped into the Davis trade, the teams would make the deal official on July 6.
The Davis deal could theoretically be delayed until July 30, as newly-drafted players can’t be dealt for 30 days after signing a contract. Waiting those 30 days would be advantageous to the Lakers for cap-related reasons. However, it would have been unrealistic for the Lakers to expect the Pelicans and Hawks to wait that long to bring in those traded players.
Pelinka was already on board with making the trade official on July 6 before New Orleans came to an agreement with Atlanta, according to Wojnarowski.
Thus, the Lakers won’t be able to count the No. 4 pick’s salary slot for salary-matching purposes in the AD trade. In order to maximize their cap room, they’ll have to use the cap room first by signing free agents, then make the Davis deal as an over-the-cap team under salary-matching guidelines.
The Lakers are offering the contracts of Moritz Wagner, Jemerrio Jones, and Isaac Bonga to teams as part of the Davis deal in order to make the salaries match up. The Hawks don’t necessarily have to be part of the Davis deal, since the Pelicans could make that trade separately after the trade with the Lakers becomes official.
Davis could also waive most or all of his $4MM trade bonus, something that he’s not necessarily expected to do. In a scenario where the Lakers get Davis to agree and find a taker for each of the three aforementioned players as part of a larger AD deal, Los Angeles could have roughly $32MM in cap space.
Pelinka is trash. Lakers are run by trash.
Ok.
It’s true
I think Lakers have a trade exception of $1.5M, so could keep Mo if AD agrees to no kicker. Bonga, Jones, exception..1.4+1.4+1.5, BI, Zo, Hart…$18m. Total $22.3 x 1.25 = 28.75. (Plus 100,000). AD $27.1. AD could get almost half his $4 M kicker.
Trade exceptions can’t be combined with players/picks. Can only be used on their own to absorb a player who fits into the exception.
Blame 2k for the massive confusion regarding trades.
Are you saying it can only be used to go over the cap by the 1.5 exception to sign a free agent?
No, it can only be used in a trade (or via a waiver claim) to acquire a player who earns $1.5MM or less. It likely won’t end up being used at all (most of them aren’t).
It seems to me that these details should have all been ironed out and understood BEFORE they announced the trade to the world. I’m a laker fan, but I don’t trust that they are managing this with real professionalism and competence.
Well the lakers didn’t handle the AD trade professionally, but hey what’s is done is done. Let’s move forward with well thought out plans.
Lakers Fan For Life
Go Lakers!!!!
I’m a Laker fan too but there’s no such thing as a well thought out plan with them anymore.
The Lakers didn’t? More like the Pelicans who when Demps was the GM leaked everything and their owner said they will trade AD to LAL “over my dead body”. Only when Griffin came in they found common sense and took the best deal out there. But sure the Lakers weren’t proffesonal. And the idea that Pelinka an NBA GM doesn’t know how the cap works is comical
Seems there’s only two ways it could go with Pelinka and neither one is very flattering. 1. He didn’t think the cap through and botched it, or 2. He knew the cap ramifications and thought he could build a team with $19M left.
I am hoping neither is right and he has another plan which makes him smarter than what is being said. But right now, it doesn’t look real good.
What? Those are the only 2 options when trading for AD. So many people pushing these ridiculous narratives. “It doesnt look good”, yeah sure Lebron and AD doesnt look good. They were much better as a lottery team
My “doesn’t look good” was referring to how Pelinka handled it. Not what I think of AD and LBJ. IE…$34 M in cap space is a lot better than possible 19 we might have. So 19 is not a great outcome if he could have had 34. He might still get there dumping last 3 players on roster. Bonga is a long term project. Jones isn’t going to help this year, so only real loss is perhaps Mo. But we wouldn’t be dealing with any of it, if he played his cards better.
I’m more surprised that the Lakers didn’t get AD to waive his trade kicker, as that was a win-win for both Pels and Lakers (especially the latter). Getting the Pels to have agreed to wait until July 30 to “finalize” the deal (so it could be done based on matching contracts) would not have been a win-win. Both teams (and now the Hawks) would have their cap space affected for a critical 24 day period, the Lakers positively and the Pels negatively. Hawks would now be involved as well.