Now that free agency has officially begun just over two weeks ago, nearly every NBA team has brought out a shiny new item for their fans to celebrate… except the Los Angeles Lakers.
That’s right, while the Warriors and Clippers parted ways with former Big 3 members in the name of depth, the Nuggets added a new player in Dario Saric, and the OKC Thunder used cap space and Josh Giddey to acquire Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, the Lakers re-signed some of their own players, drafted Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, and… did pretty much nothing else.
Now, admittedly, part of this is due to the new CBA designs, as the Lakers are currently unable to use their mid-level exception for taxpayers and as a result, can’t really outbid any other team for a notable free agent, losing out on valuable pieces like Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith and Jonas Valanciunas who could have made an immediate impact.
Now, could that change? Sure, Rob Pelinca is doing his best to carve out a path to use the taxpayer-paid minimum salary in pursuit of adding another role player to the rotation, but unless he can work out a deal that allows him to sign a big contract and bring back a good player at a lower price, and then clear his $5.2 million exception, the Lakers will have to go to minimum salary to find their next contributor.
Impossible? No, plenty of good players have signed veteran minimum contracts before, including Kelly Oubre in Philadelphia, Kris Dunn in Utah and Christian Wood right here in Los Angeles, but every year, almost every time, one or two players are signed to veteran minimum contracts and rarely do they produce incredible results, let alone raise a team’s ceiling in a crucial season.
Fortunately for the Lakers, they’re not in the worst spot 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 on the market after two weeks of free agency, who knows, maybe they’ll finally find a way to add a starter, or at least a top-eight rotation if there aren’t any “better” options available for a player like Toronto Raptors forward Gary Trent Jr. down the road. But until someone comes off 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 NBA’s most storied franchises back on top just a few years after winning a title at Walt Disney World.
Rob Pelinka comments on the slow start to the Lakers’ free agency
Speaking about the Lakers’ slow start to free agency, with not a single outside 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 its roster, even if the exact path to that improvement remains uncertain.
“I think we’ll always be aggressive in trying to make improvements to the roster and we’ll be relentless in continuing to look at what we can do,” Pelinka told reporters via Last World On Sports. “We have 14 players under guaranteed contract with a slot, and this is the season where we need to look at all the different things we can address to improve the roster, so we’re in the midst of that as we speak. That will continue in the coming days and is often reflected in Las Vegas (Summer League) where all the general managers get together and other deals get done. But yeah, we’ll continue to be aggressive.”
As things stand currently, the Lakers don’t really have a lot of ways to build their roster, as they only have one spot available and it’s mild exceptions to further strengthen their rotation, barring the veteran minimum exception and the second-round pick exception. Maybe the Lakers can convince a player like GTJ to sign for the minimum, maybe they’ll strike gold with a player who develops into a legitimate rotation player like the Grizzlies did with GG Jackson, or maybe Pelinka can scrape together some 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 improved while they simply haven’t done enough to close the gap.
