Los Angeles will have three first-round picks available on draft night to construct an offer for Antetokounmpo. Rival scouts and executives doubt that package will be sufficient, though the Lakers plan to pursue the two-time MVP regardless.
Team sources emphasized the franchise won't limit itself to a single strategy. The Lakers possess more cap space than any other competitive team, enabling aggressive pursuit of players who fit roster needs.
The Lakers could also target restricted free agents like Peyton Watson of the Denver Nuggets and Tari Eason of the Houston Rockets. The Lakers may attempt to circumvent offer sheet complications by using draft capital in sign-and-trade scenarios.
I discarded LAL as a possible suitor for Vucevic in the summer since he is not the type of center Luka wants (athletic rim runner, lob threat) but maybe they will become a suitor for Vuce if they strike out on other targets.
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The Lakers don't have much on the books for next year. Luka at $45mil. A Reaves will opt out of his $15mil player option. LeBron is a FA ($52mil). Hachimura is a FA ($18mil). Kennard & Maxi Kleber will be FAs ($22mil combined). Jaxson Hayes is a FA (only $3.5mil). Vanderbilt they are stuck with for 2 more years at $12.5mil per season. LaRavia a bargain at $6mil. Vanderbilt is their only bad contract.
It will be interesting to see what Ayton ($8mil) and Smart ($5.4mil) do. They both have player options at lowish money but may not do any better elsewhere. Neither having a great season for LAL. Smart in particular has been poor. It would be great for LAL if Smart opted out. Ayton is more borderline.
Then they have smallish contracts that are easy to move. Knecht at $4.2mil, Bronny at $2.3mil (not fully guaranteed), Theirro at $2.15mil. So they could free up another $8mil minus cap holds for roster spots there if wanted to.
LAL could be a major player in FA. I wonder what A Reaves' cap hold will be when he opts out. He is not a rookie contract so he won't have that big multiplier. I looked it up. Looks like it will be 150% of his $14mil salary this season since it is an above MLE deal. So $21mil cap hold. So they can sit on him until they use their cap space to sign other players. Then finalize the deal for Reaves for the max (~$40-50mil).
That is around $100mil in salary & cap holds. LAL will have a lot of cap space this summer. The cap this year was $155mil. So $50+mil in cap room this summer.
