The Lakeshow Review

This summer’s free agency hasn’t exactly provided the fireworks that NBA fans have become accustomed to in previous years. Particularly for the Los Angeles Lakers who have not made any big moves so far, besides the signings of Jake LaRavia and Deandre Ayton. Due to the new salary cap stipulations, LA has found itself with little wiggle room to make any big moves. Consequently, they’ve been forced to use their limited resources to attempt to improve the roster as best they can around the margins. 

Rumors have surfaced that the team might be potential players on the buyout market, given the slow nature of this free agency period coupled with the CBA’s limits on their spending power. This looks to be a modern trend that might become more prevalent in the coming seasons as teams and front offices adjust to life in the new collective bargaining agreement. Teams are becoming wary of dishing out large contracts, and have adopted a much more conservative approach to their spending habits. Because of the punitive nature of the salary cap’s 1st and 2nd aprons, front offices have been treading the free agent season much more lightly than in eras past. Thus, buyouts and roster cuts are becoming more of a trend. Much in line with the NFL, once teams reach a certain threshold in the salary, namely past the 1st apron, they’re often faced with making tough decisions like cuts, buyouts or trades. The looming 2nd apron, and its ensuing penalties makes it so that owners are much less eager to blow past the luxury tax and much more willing to consistently stay below it. However, unlike the NFL, the NBA is not a hard cap league, but its ultra restrictive 2nd apron almost makes it a defacto hard cap. Unless a team is fielding a surefire championship contender, an owner will almost certainly aim to stay below that 2nd apron on principle, in order to avoid its consequences. This newfound philosophy could open up new possibilities on the buyout market. 

Lately we’ve seen guys such as Deandre Ayton, Dame Lillard, and now potentially Bradley Beal get the axe from their teams and having their contracts bought out. We’ve even heard whispers of LeBron James being a potential buyout candidate so that he can go ring-chase on another contender, presumably in the Eastern Conference. That scenario is highly unlikely. With that said, all of these scenarios would have viewed as taboo in years past, when the NBA was a much more player’s friendly league, and owners were usually forced to pony up the money even after dishing out a bad contract. But tides have turned, and the NBA has started to resemble more that of the NFL, where owners are more willing to dump a player’s contract so that they can reset their books or avoid hitting that 2nd apron. Definitely a trend to look at moving forward, as well as something that can dramatically change the way players, agents and front office executives alike view the concept of a player’s worth.

With Beal being a potential buyout candidate, the Lakers have been said to be one of the teams interested in signing the veteran guard. Additionally, the Clippers, Warriors and Bucks are also rumored to be in the mix, should Beal become available. From a Lakers’ viewpoint, bringing in someone like Beal would offer obvious benefits as well as potential challenges. To start with, the Lakers, or any team for that matter could benefit from the services of a seasoned scorer like Beal. He’s still someone who can put the ball in the hole, even in his thirties, after averaging over 17 points last season on a shade under 50% shooting. He did this mostly as a third option, playing behind Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on the Phoenix Suns. Bringing him on board the Lakers roster, however, would likely require some drastic changes. Namely either bringing Beal off the bench, or relegating fan-favorite Austin Reaves to the bench. A starting lineup of Luka, LeBron, Reaves, Ayton and Beal would quite simply fail to provide the defensive capacity to win games consistently. Not to mention, one of Reaves or Beal would be forced to play out of position. You might even consider trading AR in that instance for defensive reinforcement on the perimeter. Such as for New Orleans’ Herb Jones. 

The Lakers, for their part have maintained their bi-annual exception of roughly $5M open so that they have the flexibility to make a play at a Bradley Beal or any similar cap casualty. Beal however, looks poised to sign with the LA Clippers should he receive a buyout. So this might be a moot point. But the Lakers will likely head into the season with the bi-annual exception in hand should any player that fits a need emerge as a buyout option. They’ll likely have to make a roster cut in order to open up roster space for such a move; perhaps someone like Shake Milton would be that player. In any case, LA looks to be positioning itself as a prime destination for midseason waiver wire acquisitions, should any team decide to shed salary at any point in the coming season. In this new era of NBA salary cap, you never know what players may become available at a given moment.

In other news, the Lakers’ Summer Leaguers topped the Spurs in their third and final contest of the California Classic by a final score of 89-88. The team made a late fourth quarter surge, as they played poorly for most of the game, yet somehow managed to stay within striking distance. NBA hopeful Darius Bazley led the way with an impressive 27 points and 13 boards. 2nd year pro Dalton Knecht led the late push, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter, giving him 25 points for the night, on 4-8 from beyond the arc, to go with 8 rebounds. Bronny James had a meek showing scoring just 2 points on 1-5 shooting from the field in 15 minutes of action. It was good to see Dalton get his groove back, as his three ball came alive in the fourth quarter. Hopefully he can keep it going for the rest of SL, and eventually the regular season. The team, though did not play exceptionally well tonight, after they were out-executed by a disciplined Spurs team for most of the contest. They did manage to catch them off guard to end the game and cap off an improbable comeback. With that said, you’d like to see the team play better during the first half and build leads that they can sustain. It was a good game, and hopefully the team will keep progressing into the tournament. They’ll now head to Vegas, where they’ll face the Dallas Mavericks, and number one overall pick Cooper Flagg, as both teams kick off their Summer League Tournament. Hopefully the kids stay hungry and put forth a strong showing against the talented young Mavericks. Namely for the guys who will be on the big club, we want to see them show out. Go Lakers.