The Lakers may not necessarily need a star in place to lure LeBron James, Zach Lowe of ESPN writes in a massive round-up of free agency notes. If James were to sign in Los Angeles alongside the team’s existing young stars and plethora of cap space they’d immediately become one of the league’s most appealing destinations for the next 12 months.
The comment comes in response to the notion that the Lakers are growing desperate to acquire Kawhi Leonard from the Spurs prior to James’ opt-in deadline tomorrow at 10:59pm CST. As things stand, both the Celtics and Sixers appear poised to offer better packages than what Lowe speculates L.A. might.
The King’s decision will have a ripple effect on the rest of the league, especially the Eastern Conference. If the Raptors, for example, were to watch James head to the West, it would make keeping their current core in place more appealing considering that their path to the Finals would be hypothetically easier.
Here’s a taste of the rest of Lowe’s findings:
- If the Thunder can convince Paul George to return to Oklahoma City, it will be a monumental victory for general manager Sam Presti. If he leaves, the club would be forced to at least think about blowing the current squad up and trading Russell Westbrook.
- Only six teams have notable amounts of potential cap space and half of those – the Hawks, Bulls and Kings – are telling teams that they’re interested in using that space to absorb bad contracts and pick up assets.
- It’s unclear that there will be much of a market for Derrick Favors beyond, potentially the Mavs. It may make more sense for the big man to stay with the Jazz after finally starting to click alongside Rudy Gobert in Quin Snyder‘s offense last season.
- The two best candidates to sign a qualifying offer this summer and approach next summer as unrestricted free agents are Celtics guard Marcus Smart and Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic. Lowe writes that Nurkic turned down a “rich” four-year extension last fall but might have a hard time finding a team willing to offer more than the mid-level exception this summer.
- It stands to reason that Aaron Gordon, Zach LaVine and Jabari Parker will yield significant offers from the Magic, Bulls and Bucks respectively but none of those teams have reason to offer a max contract right away.
- The Pacers could make life harder for the Magic by putting together an offer in the $20MM range for Gordon. Lowe writes that there has been “mild discontent for years” about Gordon’s role in Orlando’s offense.
- The Nuggets tried “feverishly” to trade for a second first-round pick last Thursday in the hopes of nabbing Zhaire Smith. Denver’s 2019 first-rounder was on the table in those talks.
For more free agency notes, including some potential contract extension candidates and the reasoning behind Nikola Jokic not getting a player option in the fifth year of his new deal with the Nuggets, check out the full feature at ESPN.
It may make sense for favors to stick with Rudy Gobert instead of Rudy gay but what do I know
A max contract for Jabari Parker? Smdh
I know the benefits that max contracts have, but this is why I don’t like them. They get kind of watered down when given out as often as they are.
Trading Westbrook…..
And keeping Melo as the centre piece for the year…..
Now that’s laughable
That’s the point….we would tank on purpose.
Just because Westbrook is gone doesn’t mean Melo is the center piece. I don’t expect Melo to be the center piece of any future team unless it is a losing team.
I would assume that the return from a Westbrook trade would be centerpiece of the Thunder.
That being said, Westbrook can’t be traded until late September at the earliest. I don’t see him moving until next offseason at the earliest.
Lakers is always the top destination for FA, so I cannot see any problem for them attracting stars there, specially with the plethora of great youngsters & if they get LBJ, everyone will wanna go there man.
That would be a crazy scenario, trading Westbrook away from OKC. Who could get him, what OKC would want for him? Really exciting & intriguing.
Three way deal thought
Thunder get: Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, DeAndre Bembry
Hawks get: Carmelo Anthony, Denver 2019 #1 pick
Nuggets get: Kent Bazemore
Crazy?
I doubt Carmelo would waive his No Trade Clause to go to Atlanta
Nuggets are already regretting jumping on Porter. Should have gone with their Zaire Smith plan… Smith is a mover.
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Teams with capspace should consider commiting to good but cheap FAs and go for winning. This is the year for that. Good FAs will be available cheap because capspace is low.