The Lakers have officially signed first-round pick Moritz Wagner to his rookie scale contract, the team announced today in a press release. While most signings can’t be completed during the July moratorium, there’s nothing stopping first-rounders from formally inking their rookie deals during the first week of July.
Wagner, the 25th overall pick in last month’s draft, played his college ball at Michigan and posted 14.6 PPG to go along with 7.1 RPG in 2017/18. The 6’10” forward also flashed stretch-four potential, knocking down 38.5% of his threes in his three-year college career.
Wagner’s salary in 2018/19 figures to be approximately $1.76MM, which is 120% of his rookie scale amount.
The fact that Wagner has formally signed his deal won’t impact the Lakers’ cap room for this summer, since he was already on the team’s books with a cap hold equivalent to his new rookie salary. However, it does mean that he can’t be included in a trade for the next 30 days.
Lakers want a meeting with Clint Capela per NBA.com. Looks like Houston might have to give Capela the max, and they still have seversl players to sign.
Anybody think that could be LAs front office playing mind games with Houston’s? Get them worried about the financials of a Capela Max Contract, and distract them from LeBron.
Houston’s only way to acquire LeBron at a max salary was via trade (similar to how they acquired CP3). The Lakers’ interest in Capela has more to do with gauging LeBron’s interest in Capela as his second star than distracting Houston from LeBron.
Well there goes Wagner possibly being included in a Kawhi deal for the time being. Granted he could still be included in a future Kawhi deal but at the very least that takes him out of the potential assets LA could send right now.