It was said that LeBron James would take a pay cut in free agency this summer if it helped the Los Angeles Lakers sign a difference maker, with names such as Klay Thompson, James Harden and Jonas Valanciunas offered up as possibilities. It was rumored DeMar DeRozan could be on that list as well. However, the former three have all agreed to new deals elsewhere, and while DeRozan is still unsigned, LeBron has now gone and agreed to a two-year, $104 million max contract with a player option on Year 2.
This James deal makes it less likely the Lakers will be able to acquire DeRozan because of the rules regarding sign-and-trades and the aprons. The team receiving a player in a sign-and-trade gets a hard cap at the $178,132,000 first apron, and Los Angeles is now slated to be over the 188,931,000 second apron with this LeBron contract on the books.
For the Lakers to acquire DeRozan in a sign-and-trade now, they'd have to get rid of enough salary to get them back below the first apron when all these moves are actually completed and the roster is set. That theoretically still could happen, but it seems unlikely at this time that this front office will look to trade out that much salary just to get DeRozan, who's not looking to take a mid-level deal. There are also luxury tax complications from the Chicago Bulls' side in terms of how much salary they can take back in a DeRozan sign-and-trade, so a third team would likely have to be involved.
So if not DeRozan, what happens next?
Lakers' possible options
A likelier scenario here is the Lakers are looking to make a regular trade (or trades) for an upgrade, with the ultimate result getting them below the second apron (so probably not a Zach LaVine deal). The new rules for the second apron mean a team can't aggregate salaries to make a trade, so as it stands, Los Angeles wouldn't be able to pull something like that off because the current projected roster salary is over.
But, of course, none of these free agency deals are official yet, so there's some wiggle room here. The Lakers could theoretically make a trade aggregating players and then if LeBron James needs to take slightly less on his contract to get them under the second apron, he could. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski hinted as much after the $104 million agreement was reported. Or perhaps agreements are slightly adjusted elsewhere to help get them under.
It was recently reported that Los Angeles was having trade talks with the Portland Trail Blazers, Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz. The Blazers talks are presumably centered around Jerami Grant (Robert Williams III is also on the block), while the Nets have Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith available. The Lakers were previously linked to the Jazz's Collin Sexton. It seems unlikely Lauri Markkanen will go to Los Angeles, but Walker Kessler is another intriguing option.
Grant is set to make $30 million next season and would require Los Angeles to aggregate salary to get him. The Blazers are also looking for a lot in return, so it's unclear if there's a match. When it comes to the Nets, they reportedly would have some level of interest in bringing D'Angelo Russell back, and he's a natural trade chip in any potential deals after he decided to opt in to nearly $19 million for 2024-25.
It's hard to believe the Lakers are planning on essentially just running the same roster back with the JJ Redick coaching change and the draft additions of Dalton Knecht and Bronny James. We'll see if Rob Pelinka and Co. have something up their sleeve to improve this roster in a loaded Western Conference.
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