NBA Trade Deadline Portfolio 2018: Los Angeles Lakers
By Jeff Siegel
There is one mandate for the Los Angeles Lakers at this trade deadline: Don’t take on any more money that goes beyond this year.
Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka are licking their chops at every rumor and story that comes out of Cleveland that inches LeBron James ever closer to the purple and gold. The Lakers are current looking at more than $51 million in cap space this summer, assuming they move on from the cap holds of Brook Lopez, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Corey Brewer and Julius Randle and cut loose Tyler Ennis, Ivica Zubac and Thomas Bryant. Those last three are all making minimums next season, but every dollar is going to count for Los Angeles to make their Hollywood ending happen.
To add James and another max level player, the Lakers will need at least $65.7 million in space to fit both contracts under the projected $101 million cap, which means they have work to do to open that space. The young guys are mostly untouchable, but two players at the top of the team’s salary sheet seem to be prime candidates for a trade: Luol Deng and Jordan Clarkson. Deng is in Year 2 of the worst contract in the league — without other moves to supplement it, no team has the cap space to take him in for no returning salary. Clarkson makes $12.5 million next year and $13.4 million in 2019-20 but actually brings some value to the table. It would still cost the Lakers a pretty penny to move him, but not nearly as much as Deng, who might as well be entirely dead money at this point.
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The rest of the Lakers roster is mostly untouchable at the Feb. 8 trade deadline. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart are on such favorable contracts and seem to be a large part of the Lakers’ future. The only way one of them gets moved is if James tells Johnson and Pelinka that he doesn’t want them on the team. But for now, there’s almost no chance they trade one of those four.
Larry Nance Jr. is an interesting piece of this team — he’s coming up on the final year of his rookie scale contract and may want to open extension talks before the October deadline, but another team may value him more than the Lakers do. Moving his 2018-19 salary wouldn’t put a huge dent in the $14 million the Lakers still need to open up for two max slots, but he might be the only player on the block for Los Angeles who is actually a positive asset.
The biggest problem for the Lakers is targets. They’ve already swept up a few big expiring contracts and there just aren’t that many more out there. Los Angeles doesn’t want to have to send anything of real value for those expiring deals, which limits their targets even further. Philadelphia has a horde of expiring contracts as well, but they have the same plan as the Lakers and aren’t going to be willing to take on long-term money in exchange for those expiring deals.
In Phoenix, Greg Monroe would be an intriguing option. He makes $17.8 million this season, is an unrestricted free agent this summer and has no on-court value for the Suns. The math works on a Deng-Monroe swap, though the Lakers would have to be willing to part with at least two first-round picks to make it worthwhile for Phoenix. They owe their 2018 first-round pick to either Philadelphia or Boston and therefore cannot trade a first-round pick at this deadline before 2020, but if Johnson and Pelinka get any strong indications that they’ll be in the James derby this offseason, Phoenix could be a great dumping ground for Deng’s contract.
Doing so would open up enough space to bring in James and another max contract, without needing to part with any of their young core in the process (though Randle would still have to be renounced to make the math work). This trade would have to be completed before this deadline — they can’t wait until June to make the deal because teams aren’t allowed to trade upcoming free agents after the season ended, making Monroe untradeable for Phoenix. It’s a long shot, but if the Lakers are truly all-in for the upcoming summer, that’s a move that could be on the table. Of course, if they trade two future firsts to get off Deng’s contract and strike out in free agency, we’re mentioning Johnson and Pelinka in the same breath as Billy King.
The Lakers do have a pair of smaller assets they can wield at this trade deadline. They own second round picks in 2018 from Denver and 2019 from Chicago, the latter of which could end up in the 31-40 range. Those picks should have some real value on the market, and though they almost certainly wouldn’t be enough to replace a first-rounder in a potential Deng trade, using one or both of them to help move Clarkson’s contract is possible. However, there’s no rush on moving Clarkson at this deadline — they can always move him around the draft or early in July if a team finds itself with extra unused cap space and the Lakers hit on their big-money signings.
Next: NBA Trade Deadline Portfolio 2018: Portland Trail Blazers
The likeliest scenario for Los Angeles is a quiet deadline, followed by a manic period of rumors and trades in late June and early July as free agency opens and they have a much clearer picture of where they stand with James, Paul George and other big names. Going out of their way at this deadline to save future money without knowledge that they’ll be in the running for those guys puts the cart before the horse. If they get a commitment from a pair of max-level players, though, they can make the necessary trades to move off Clarkson or Deng.