Los Angeles Lakers rumors this offseason connected the team with top players like James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas and DeJounte Murray. Weeks into NBA free agency, it now appears that Los Angeles won’t come away with much.
After losing DeRozan to the Sacramento Kings, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Lakers never even made DeRozan an offer. Instead, DeRozan’s hometown team, expressed “simple interest” in him and never took it further.
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Earlier in the summer, Lakers rumors suggested that LeBron James would take a significant discount on his new contract to help the team sign Klay Thompson or Valanciunas. Instead, Valanciunas landed with the Washington Wizards and Thompson took less money to play for the Dallas Mavericks over the Lakers.
James still took a slight discount. The Lakers’ star signed a two-year, $101.355 million contract that was $3 million less than he could’ve signed for. He made that decision to help Los Angeles stay under the second apron, seemingly allowing them to make other moves in NBA free agency. Now, even that seems unlikely.
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According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Lakers currently won’t be pursuing free agent wing Gary Trent Jr. While there might be some interest in Trent, Los Angeles “can’t even make a run” at him right now because of its financial situation.
As Stein explains, signing Trent to any realistic contract would put Los Angeles at risk of going over the second apron. Doing so comes with severe restrictions under the new CBA and the Lakers roster isn’t viewed as good enough to justify going over it right now.
Making matters worse, per Stein, the Lakers’ efforts to explore options to shed salary reportedly could prove difficult.
- Gary Trent Jr stats: 13.7 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.1 SPG, 42.6% FG, 39.3% 3PT
“Yet even those kinds of moves likely require some form of second-round draft capital attached and taking in a player via sign-and-trade, as a first apron team, is not permitted under the league’s new rules.”
Marc Stein on the Los Angeles Lakers
While the Lakers could conceivably pursue Trent Jr on the $5.2 million mid-level exception, that could also push them over. As a result, before Los Angeles makes any addition to its roster, it might have to trade away future assets to offload a contract.
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