Lakers retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope on 3-year deal

The great Los Angeles Lakers offseason continues to improve, as they’ve found a way to retain Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

The championship-winning Los Angeles Lakers enjoyed a great 2019-20 season, and are somehow having an even better offseason.

They managed to put together a stronger supporting cast consisting of Montrezl Harrell, Dennis Schroder and Wesley Matthews. The only question mark remaining was the status of guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, whom the Lakers were hoping to retain.

Well, general manager Rob Pelinka got the job done on Saturday, as the team agreed to re-sign Caldwell-Pope to a three-year, $40 million contract, per Shams Charania of The Athletic. The dream offseason for LA continues.

Keeping KCP was a priority for Lakers

The Lakers made it known that they wanted to keep Caldwell-Pope this offseason, but the shooting guard wanted to explore his options. As it turns out, the New York Knicks were reportedly interested in Caldwell-Pope’s services, and they had plenty of cap space to potentially outbid the team from Hollywood. instead, the Lakers used it as motivation and gave him the deal he was looking for.

Caldwell-Pope caught some flak at times from Lakers fans, but he flourished when it mattered the most in the playoffs. In 69 regular-season games (26 starts), Caldwell-Pope averaged 9.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from the 3-point line. His numbers in the postseason were even better, as he earned starts in all 21 of their contests. KCP averaged 10.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.0 steals per game while accumulating a 41.8 field-goal percentage and 37.8 3-point percentage.

The need to re-sign KCP was strong for the Lakers after they shipped off Danny Green to the Oklahoma City Thunder (who then traded him to the Philadelphia 76ers) and saw Avery Bradley sign with the Miami Heat. Not to mention that the shooting guard depth (and overall talent depth) in this year’s free agency class was relatively weaker than in years past.

Los Angeles retained Caldwell-Pope, and now it needs to focus on bringing back Anthony Davis to make this one of the stronger offseasons in recent memory.