Few teams have a greater opportunity to benefit from the NBA’s latest television deal than the Lakers, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times explains. The new TV agreement means the cap will likely rise significantly in the summer of 2016, when Los Angeles will only have $4.3MM in guaranteed salary. Of course, that number will increase over the course of the next two years, but with several big name free agents slated to enter free agency at that time, the Lakers will have a great shot to capitalize on the higher salary cap. Here’s more from Los Angeles:
- Coach Byron Scott was effusive in his praise of Ronnie Price‘s camp performance so far as the point guard looks to make the Lakers opening-night roster on a non-guaranteed deal, observes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Kobe Bryant has seemingly been in Price’s corner, too.
- Nick Young will be sidelined for six to eight weeks following surgery to repair a torn thumb ligament, the Lakers announced. The injury further thins out the cast of small forwards available in Lakerland, with Ryan Kelly and Xavier Henry also battling health issues as the regular season approaches.
- Clippers coach and president Doc Rivers says that front office people around the league expected a new TV deal but added the influx of revenue wasn’t a factor in how the Clippers did business this summer, writes Dan Woike of The Orange County Register.
Chuck Myron and Zach Links contributed to this post.