Lakers Negotiating Deal With Atlanta To Help Land Max Free Agent

The Los Angeles Lakers put themselves as one of the favorites for the 2020 NBA championship after they came up trumps in the race for Anthony Davis. They lost a big part of their young core and a host of draft picks, but the pairing of Davis and LeBron James, who are among the top five players in the league, will give them a chance to challenge the best in the Western Conference.

However, the Lakers front office, mainly Rob Pelinka, who is running the show following the departure of Magic Johnson, seemed to miss the implications of Davis’ arrival on the team’s max salary cap space. The plan was to trade for the former New Orleans Pelicans star and still retain the $32 million in cap space to sign a max free agent in the summer.

But Pelinka neglected to include rookies Moe Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones in the trade that would have allowed them to offload almost $5 million in salary, while also not accounting Davis’ trade bonus of $4 million. The Lakers are now left with just $23.8 million in max salary cap space going into the summer.

The Lakers are looking to offload the three rookie players and according to Mark Heisler of the Orange County Register, Pelinka is now in talks with Atlanta Hawks to try and give the trio away, with the report claiming that the Lakers are even willing to pay the Hawks to sign the rookies.

The Los Angeles franchise’s general manager is even said to have returned to the Pelicans to restructure the trade deal for Davis and include the trio, but their offer was rejected by the New Orleans franchise. Moreover, ESPN’s Bobby Marks reported that in order for the Lakers to get back to the $32 million mark, they also need to convince Davis to sacrifice his entire $4 million trade bonus.

“Under this scenario, Davis would need to waive all of his $4M trade bonus to make the money work. If there is a taker(s), LAL could sign 1 or multiple players with $32.5M in room on 7/6 and still make the AD trade on the same day. As of now, Los Angeles will have $23.8M in room,” Marks wrote.

The Lakers are keen to make it the “Big 3” in Los Angeles ahead of next season as they look to end their six-year post-season hiatus and have been linked with a number of elite free agents this summer. The likes of Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant are available, but likes of D’Angelo Russell and Jimmy Butler have also been linked with moves to Los Angeles.