Here’s the latest about how their plans are shaping up

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The clock eventually will hit 3 p.m. PT Friday and all the back-channel conversations, the prediction models and speculation will converge into action.

Teams will change. Players will move. Money will be spent. Dream rosters will get built. Hope will sprout.

It’s hard to know exactly how matters will play out. Separating rumor from fact this time of year is almost as difficult as building a championship team. And things can change in a blink (i.e. James Harden). But we have an informed idea as to how it could end up looking for the Lakers as they try to build on their appearance in the Western Conference finals.

Here are the big questions:

Will the Lakers use the full midlevel exception? This idea started to pick up steam over the last week or so as the team examined options following the draft. When the Lakers couldn’t find a deal they liked with Malik Beasley and/or Mo Bamba’s contracts on draft night, they were operating as a team with access to the full non-taxpayer midlevel exception. That plan solidified Thursday when the team waived Bamba before his $10.3 million contract became guaranteed and declined the team option on Beasley for next season. Those moves sent the clearest signal that the Lakers probably will use the MLE and put themselves under a hard cap at $172 million.

Read more: Lakers waive Mo Bamba, likely to decline club option for Malik Beasley

That $12.4 million exception could get the Lakers a seat at the table with some impact free agents — Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez, Denver’s Bruce Brown and Golden State’s Donte DiVincenzo are all possibilities for teams with the midlevel exception.

The other option for the Lakers would be to carve that $12.4 million into pieces and target a large group of players that could include Dennis Schroder, Georges Niang, Jevon Carter, Eric Gordon, Taurean Prince, Joe Ingles, Yuta Watanabe, Trey Lyles and Seth Curry.

Schroder, the lone pending Lakers free agent on this list, is expected to have strong interest after being one of the NBA’s biggest bargains last season. A reunion with Billy Donovan in Chicago is one possibility that would keep him from…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/lakers-free-agency-heres-latest-023524010.html?src=rss

Author : LA Times

Publish date : 2023-06-30 02:35:24

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