Magic Johnson is ‘confident’ two stars are coming to L.A.

Lakers team president Magic Johnson said he’s “confident” the team can land two elite level superstars in 2018 free agency.

Earlier this week, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski was reporting that the Los Angeles Lakers were refocusing their rebuild plans to free agency in the summer of 2019. This news was a drastic departure from previous beliefs the Lakers were going to pursue top-tier free agents including LeBron James, Paul George, and DeMarcus Cousins in the summer of 2018.

After the trade deadline, Lakers’ team president Magic Johnson said the team’s eye is still on the prize(s) of the 2018 class of free agents.

“I wouldn’t have made the move if I wasn’t confident,” Johnson said Thursday. “I don’t want to stay where we are. I don’t want to be on the outside of the playoffs looking in. We have to take another step, right? So this move allows us to position ourselves to hopefully take that next step.”

The move to which Johnson refers is the Lakers’ deadline deal with Cleveland that sent Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. to Cleveland and brought back Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye, and Cleveland’s 2018 protected first-round pick.

Clarkson and Nance were once thought to be important parts of the Lakers’ core for the future. However, the arrival of Lonzo Ball and the emergence of rookie-surprise Kyle Kuzma left the former pair expendable in the name of salary cap flexibility.

“There’s so many different ways you can use that [cap space],” Lakers’ general manager Rob Pelinka said, “And then, of course, the obvious way is we now have in July of 2018 and July of 2019, we now have real 100 percent space to do two max players if that’s what we decide to do, or one in 2018 and then following it up with another one in 2019. So the flexibility is really amazing.”

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The Lakers still have a bit of salary cap work to do to ensure they have maximum space available to lure key free agents to join their core of Ball, Kuzma, and Brandon Ingram. They’ll need to make a decision about fourth-year forward Julius Randle this offseason, and will most likely use the stretch provision on veteran Luol Deng’s remaining contract.

One this is for sure, the Lakers are tired of dwelling at the bottom of the league standings, and are doing all they can to make sure that changes as soon as possible.