With free agency officially a little over two weeks old, almost every team in the NBA has brought back a shiny new object for their fanbase to celebrate… except for the Los Angeles Lakers.
That's right, while the Warriors and Clippers said goodbye to former Big 3 members in the name of depth plays, the Nuggets added a new wrinkle with Dario Saric, and the OKC Thunder parlayed cap space and Josh Giddey into Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, the Lakers re-signed a few of their own players, drafted Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, and… did pretty much nothing else.
Now granted, some of this is by the new designs of the CBA, as the Lakers can't currently use their taxpayer mid-level exception and, as a result, really can't outbid any other team for a free agent of note, missing out on value pieces like Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, and Jonas Valanciunas who could have immediately made an impact.
Now granted, could this change? Sure, Rob Pelinca is reportedly trying his best to open up a pathway to use the taxpayer MLE in the pursuit of adding another roleplayer to the rotation, but unless he can swing a deal that sends out a big contract and brings back a good player at a lower price, and then free up their $5.2 million exception, the Lakers will have to go vet minimum hunting to find their next contributor.
Impossible? No, plenty of good players have been on vet minimum deals before, including Kelly Oubre in Philadelphia, Kris Dunn in Utah, and Christian Wood right here in LA, but every year, darn near every time signs a player or two on vet minimum deals and rarely does it actually produce incredible results, let alone elevate a team's ceiling in a pivotal season.
Fortunately for the Lakers, they are not in the worst place in the NBA, as they didn't lose a key reserve like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and haven't traded away all of their assets in a deal that has since blown up in their faces. With a surprising number of good players still somehow on the market after two weeks of free agency, who knows, maybe they will ultimately find a way to add a starter, or at least a top-eight rotation if no “better” options are available for a player like Toronto Raptors wing Gary Trent Jr. in the future. But until someone comes off of the board, Lakers fans will continue to question the offseason on social media and hope that something, anything, will happen to get one of the most storied franchises in the NBA back on top just a few years after winning a title in Walt Disney World.
Rob Pelinka comments on the Lakers' slow free agency start
Speaking of the Lakers' slow start to free agency, without a single external free agent added to the team on a standard NBA deal, Rob Pelinka addressed Los Angeles' slow start to the offseason and how the team is still looking to improve their roster, even if the exact path to that improvement remains uncertain.
“I think we're gonna always be aggressive to trying to make roster upgrades, and we'll be relentless to continue to look at what we can do,” Pelinka told reporters via Last Worl On Sports. “We have 14 guys under guaranteed contract with one space, and this is the season of being mindful of all the different things we can approach to improve the roster, so we're in the midst of that as we speak. That will continue in the coming days, and it often spills into Vegas [Summer League], where all the GMs meet and gather, and other deals get done. But yeah, we'll stay aggressive.”
As things presently stand, the Lakers really don't have many ways to build out their roster, as they only have one open spot and are light exceptions to further fortify their rotation save the veteran minimum exception and the second-round pick exception. Maybe the Lakers can convince a player like GTJ to sign on the minimum, maybe they strike gold on a two-way guy who turns into a legitimate rotation player like the Grizzlies did with GG Jackson, or maybe Pelinka can cobble together a few assets to trade for an impact player at a position of need, but for now, it's understandable why some fans are worried about the purple and gold in mid-July: the rest of the West has gotten better while they simply haven't done enough to close the gap.
Follow Us
Subscribe
