Following several days of exploring his options on the free-agent market, veteran guard Dion Waiters, on Wednesday, agreed to a four-year, $52 million deal to return to the Miami Heat.
However, there were a couple of other teams in pursuit of Waiters in the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, and Chicago Bulls. According to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, the Lakers had even presented him an offer that he ultimately turned down.
The Lakers made a one-year, $17 million dollar offer to Waiters, a league source told Basketball Insiders. New York and Chicago verbally expressed interest, but neither team made an offer.
This would have taken up almost entirely Los Angeles' cap space this coming season as the team holds just over $17 million after waiving big man Tarik Black this past weekend along with Nick Young opting out of his deal to enter free agency where he eventually signed with the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday afternoon.
That said, this reported offer follows suit to their offseason plans of presenting one-year deals to keep their massive allotted cap-space room open for next summer. Waiters would have helped fill a pressing need of shooting and scoring in the backcourt left by Young and D'Angelo Russell.
Los Angeles still has a few other options on the open market such as former All-Star point guard Rajon Rondo, who they have expressed much interest in, and possibly former two-time Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford, who is reportedly eyeing joining the team if he's bought out of his deal by the Atlanta Hawks.
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