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Just when you thought the Los Angeles Lakers were not going to land another max free agent, they have pulled off another rabbit from a hat.
GM Rob Pelinka has cleared the necessary cap space to sign a max level free agent this offseason, by trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to the Washington Wizards and even more importantly, having Anthony Davis waive his $4 million dollar trade bonus from the deal with the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Lakers will start free agency with $32M in salary cap space. The Lakers have the ability to sign a max player now.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2019
Anthony Davis is waiving his $4M trade kicker, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2019
The Lakers are trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis deal with New Orleans, league sources tell @ZachLowe_NBA and me. Deal clears contracts and creates more cap space for free agency.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2019
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka has found a way to complete the Anthony Davis trade on July 6 with max space to spend on a single free agent — or divide the money among multiple players.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2019
Of course, this means the team can either split up the cap space between different free agents this offeason or go after a big fish like Kawhi Leonard.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers will have a meeting with The Klaw to discuss free agent possibilities. Reports have been coming out a lot more in the mainstream media lately, stating that the Lake Show will be aggressively pursuing the NBA Finals MVP.
Free agent Kawhi Leonard is expected to allow the Toronto Raptors to make the final meeting presentation among the teams visiting with him in Los Angeles next week, league sources tell ESPN. The incumbent often prefers to go last in trying to convince a player to stay with team.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 27, 2019
At the moment, the Lakers only have LeBron James, AD and Kyle Kuzma on the roster so it’ll be interesting to see how they fill it out.
As Brian Windhorst pointed out today on Get Up!, the timing of the deals between Los Angeles and free agents is crucial because if they strike out on the big names, other lower level players could be already locked in to other deals with other teams. Plus, how the deals are constructed for restricted free agents is tricky as well.
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