As Kawhi Leonard continues to take his time in deciding with whom he will sign as a free agent (as he should), the Los Angeles Lakers are finding themselves in a pretty tough spot.
The Lakers agreed to trade for Anthony Davis last month, but the trade cannot become official until July 6, Saturday.
Right now, Davis technically is not on the Lakers' roster. Of course, they still need to take his salary into account –putting their cap space at $32 million at the moment. However, Los Angeles would really like to sign Leonard before the trade can go through on Saturday afternoon.
Why? Well, because if the Davis trade becomes official before the Lakers sign any free agents, they'll only have $27 million in cap space. So if Leonard doesn't announce his decision on Saturday, he suddenly won't be making as much money from the Purple and Gold, which could complicate things.
The Lakers can try and hold up the AD trade, but because there are so many teams affected by the Davis deal — see what Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights has to say about this — other rival clubs certainly do not want to sit and wait for Los Angeles.
Now, it's entirely possible that Leonard doesn't care all that much about making slightly less money if he agrees to sign with the Lakers on Sunday rather than Saturday, but it's not just about Leonard.
What if Leonard chooses to go elsewhere? What if he signs with the other Los Angeles team or if he decides to re-up in Toronto? Then what?
Obviously, Los Angeles would have to find some alternatives and it would have less cap space to do so in that instance.
The Lakers have a very thin roster outside of Davis and LeBron James right now. While they are supremely talented and are two of the top five players in the NBA, they would not have much help whatsoever. The free-agent market has dried up to the point where there isn't a ton of viable options out there. Sure, you have your Marcus Morrises and guys like that, but that's about it.
There was talk that Leonard could make his decision on Friday, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen now.
If the Lakers end up losing out on Leonard, their offseason will suddenly take a pretty bad turn, something which didn't even seem possible after they swung a deal for Davis in June.
Of course, Leonard could join the Lakers regardless of this current predicament, which would make everything moot. Besides, it doesn't seem like Leonard is all about the money anyway.
But if he doesn't? Then Los Angeles missed out on a ton of other free agents it could have signed to help the team. Another funny thing is, the Lakers probably could have added a few good role players and turn themselves into legitimate title contenders even without signing Leonard. Now, with most of the good players off the market, that doesn't seem all that possible.
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