The clock is ticking for the Los Angeles Lakers to make a deal for Anthony Davis, as the potential to sign him as a free agent in 2020 would complicate matters greatly. Most executives around the league are already keenly aware that trading for him would make him merely a rental player, as he would be unwilling to re-sign with any other team not named the Lakers in the offseason of 2020.
Yet playing the waiting game for the Davis 2020 campaign would only mean a world of nightmares for the purple and gold, including surrendering the chance of signing a max-level player this upcoming summer, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe.
“To sign Davis outright in 2020, the Lakers would have to maintain enough cap space for him — which could mean forfeiting the chance to add a star player this summer. The Lakers could sign that star free agent, and then sign-and-trade their young guys for Davis in the summer of 2020. Whatever the case, it's a complicated path to Davis.”
Furthermore, dealing all of their young assets now would also complicate the path to a third star to join Davis and LeBron James. Hypothetically-speaking, if the Lakers were to complete the trade before the Feb. 7 deadline, only Davis, LeBron and Luol Deng's stretched salary would be on their books for 2019-2020 — giving them roughly $30.5 million in cap space — way shy of what a max free agent costs.
The Lakers' only hope would be hoping a star player is willing to take less than the max to play alongside James and Davis, or play the waiting game for another year until the summer of 2020, when the salary cap is expected to go up again.
