Lakers Should Target Former Warriors, 76ers Guards In Free Agency If Kawhi Leonard Forms Super-Team

As the Los Angeles Lakers save all of their salary cap space for Kawhi Leonard, the team is running out of options in free agency. Whether or not the 2019 NBA Finals MVP forms a super-team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, L.A. won’t be able to acquire most of the players they targeted when the offseason began.

A large portion of the Lakers’ roster for next season will be made up of veterans that are willing to sign minimum salary contracts because they want to compete for a championship. Los Angeles signed Jared Dudley Tuesday. Similar additions are sure to follow.

Dudley and Troy Daniels are the only free agents the Lakers have signed. James and Kyle Kuzma will return to the team. Los Angeles acquired Davis in a trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. Second-round pick Talon Horton-Tucker is no guarantee to be on the roster when the regular season starts.

Daniels is the only guard under contract for the Lakers next season. He scored 6.2 points per game for the Phoenix Suns last year and has averaged just 15.5 minutes per game in his six-year career.

If Leonard goes back to the Toronto Raptors or joins the Los Angeles Clippers, shooting guard Danny Green will almost certainly become the Lakers’ focus in free agency. Signing Leonard to a max contract, however, would likely take them out of the race for Green, who made $10 million in 2018-2019.

With Leonard, James and Davis on the roster, the Lakers would be overwhelming favorites to win the 2020 NBA Finals. The team would still have to add guards in free agency to round out the roster and provide depth for the playoffs.

In that case, the Lakers might be smart to look for guards that could come cheap and have postseason experience. Players that got big minutes for the Golden State Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers in recent seasons stand out as possible fits for Los Angeles.

The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday that Golden State has rescinded Quinn Cook’s qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent. Former 76ers’ point guard T.J. McConnell also remains unsigned.

Cook, 26, knows all about playing in important games, having spent the last two seasons with the Warriors. He started 28 regular-season games during that time while shooting better than 40 percent from three-point range in each of those two years.

Cook played 17 games in each of the last two postseasons, averaging just 4.5 points on 27.7 percent three-point shooting in the playoffs. He did make some key shots in Game 2 of this year’s finals on the road against the Raptors.

As the Warriors battled injuries in the finals, Cook averaged 14.8 minutes per game, playing in every contest.

McConnell was a non-factor in the 2019 playoffs, averaging just 8.3 minutes per game in nine postseason games. But the 27-year-old was a key contributor during Philadelphia’s 2018 playoff run, averaging 8.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in the second round. McConnell saw plenty of action in crunch time, even playing 38 minutes in the 76ers’ final two playoff games of that year.

McConnell is a steady backup point guard. That’s all the Lakers really need if they can form the greatest trio in NBA history. He’s averaged at least 6.1 points, 3.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game in all four of his seasons, never playing fewer than 76 contests in a year.

If the Lakers land Leonard, they can sign one free agent for the $4.767 million room exception in addition to signing minimum salary players. Between Cook’s ability to shoot threes and McConnell’s ability to run an offense in short spurts, the two guards are about as good as Los Angeles can do with the limited money they’ll have to spend.