Lakers Rumors

World Cup Notes: Jackson, Reaves, Murray, Bogdanovic

August 7th, 2023 at 10:42am CST by Arthur Hill

Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. was named the standout of training camp in a straw poll of Team USA players taken by Joe Vardon of The Athletic. The American World Cup team wrapped up camp on Sunday in advance of tonight’s first exhibition game, and Jackson made a strong impression on his teammates.

“Jaren, particularly (Saturday), his energy and the way he went to the glass and went to the foul line every other possession,” Jalen Brunson said. “He was just really a force (in the Saturday scrimmage against the Select Team).”

As its best rim protector and most versatile big man, Jackson will be important to Team USA’s chances of capturing a gold medal. He’s looking forward to the international competition, noting that it’s conducive to his style of play, which often gets him into foul trouble in the NBA.

“It’s more physical in FIBA,” Jackson said. “You can use your chest a lot more. You can’t really use your hands, so that’s the similarity (with the NBA), but you can use your chest in FIBA just to get him off you or whatever the case. The defense gets a lot of benefit of the doubt, for the most part.”

There’s more World Cup news to pass along:

Even after a breakout season, Austin Reaves was surprised to receive an invitation to join the Team USA roster, per Steve Carp of The Sporting Tribune. Entering the league as an undrafted player, Reaves doesn’t have the credentials of his more heralded teammates, but his performance with the Lakers caught the attention of USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill. “I was shocked,” Reaves said. “As a kid, you watch (USA Basketball) and you fantasize taking that last shot to win the gold medal. Now I’m here and with a chance to contribute and be part of it. It’s a tremendous honor personally and to also represent the Lakers.”
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray will miss Team Canada’s exhibition games in Europe as his status for the World Cup is evaluated, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. The Canadians will play three times this week in Germany and twice next week in Spain before the actual tournament begins August 25. Canada will also be without newly signed Warriors guard Cory Joseph, who experienced an issue with his back during training camp, Kassius Robertson, who will report to his new EuroLeague team instead, and Oshae Brissett, who is rehabbing an injury (Twitter link).
Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic tells Eurohoops that he’s optimistic about Serbia’s chances even though it won’t have NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic or new Thunder guard Vasilije Micic. “Given that it’s a relatively young team, we’ve managed well,” Bogdanovic said. “… We play a fast and attractive style of basketball.”

Anthony Davis Signs Three-Year Extension With Lakers

August 6th, 2023 at 4:11pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 6: Davis’ new three-year extension is now official, the Lakers announced (Twitter link via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin). According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the final year is a player option (Twitter link).

AUGUST 4: The Lakers and star big man Anthony Davis are in agreement on a three-year, maximum-salary contract extension, agent Rich Paul tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The two sides wasted little time in reaching a deal after Davis became extension-eligible on Friday.

Although Wojnarowski refers to it as a $186MM extension, the exact value of the three-year contract won’t be determined until June 2025. Davis will earn a starting salary worth 35% of the salary cap in 2025/26, with subsequent 8% annual raises.

As we outlined earlier today, in order for the deal to be worth $186MM, the cap would have to increase by the maximum allowable 10% in each of the next two seasons, reaching nearly $164.6MM by ’25/26. That would be a best-case scenario, but the NBA is currently projecting more modest cap increases. If the cap is instead at $150MM in ’25/26, for example, Davis’ three-year deal would be worth about $170MM.

Either way, the long-term agreement – which was reached quickly and seemingly without any drama – is good news for both Davis and the Lakers, who are now tied to one another through the 2027/28 season.

Davis has shown a tendency in the past to take long-term guaranteed money when it’s on the table rather than trying to maximize his earnings with shorter-term deals. He’s sticking to that approach here, accepting a max extension offer when it’s available rather than playing out the 2023/24 season in the hopes of signing a bigger deal as a free agent in 2024, when he would have been eligible to opt out of his current contract.

It’s possible that accepting an extension now will cost him a little money in the long run, but for a player who has battled injuries throughout his career, it’s hard to argue with the decision. Davis has been limited to 132 of 236 regular season games over the past three years and hasn’t played more than 62 games in a season since 2017/18.

For the Lakers, meanwhile, it’s a massive investment in a player who has Davis’ injury history, but it’s an investment that could pay dividends, given that the alternative may have been negotiating a maximum-salary free agent contract of up to five years in 2024.

By signing Davis to an extension now, Los Angeles ensures that he’s locked into his current deal through the 2024/25 season, when he’ll be earning a salary ($43.2MM) well below his potential maximum. The team also won’t have to commit to him beyond 2028, when he’ll be 35 years old.

And when healthy, Davis has continued to be one of the NBA’s most dominant two-way stars. The 30-year-old averaged 25.9 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 2.0 blocks per game in 56 appearances (34.0 MPG) during the 2022/23 season, shooting 56.3% from the floor.

Davis is also an elite rim protector whose performance on that end of the court was a major factor the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference Finals this spring. He ranked first in the postseason with 14.1 RPG and 3.1 BPG.

Davis will earn $40.6MM in 2023/24, so he’s now in line to make up to approximately $270MM over the next five seasons if the cap continues to rise by 10% annually.

Davis and LeBron James have been the cornerstones of the Lakers over the last few seasons, including in the 2020 championship season. James’ future with the team beyond the 2023/24 season remains up in the air, since he has the ability to opt out of his deal and – at 38 years old – has alluded to the possibility of retirement. But whether or not LeBron remains in Los Angeles for the long term, it appears the franchise is committed to building around Davis for the foreseeable future.

Pacific Notes: Davis, LeBron, Alapag

August 6th, 2023 at 4:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Lakers star center Anthony Davis‘ new three-year maximum extension, projected to be worth $186MM, effectively makes him the full-fledged face of the team, opines Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times.

The 6’10” big man is now under team control until the 2027/28 season, when he will turn 35. As Plaschke notes, Davis has already had major injury problems during three of his four seasons with L.A.

After he proved to be the club’s most essential player in leading the Lakers back to the Western Conference Finals this spring, Davis earned the vote of confidence, in Plaschke’s view. That said, Los Angeles will now rise and fall with Davis. Though his offense can be somewhat inconsistent, he remains one of the league’s best defenders. When healthy, he has helped L.A. reach two Western Conference Finals and win one title.

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

The Davis signing seems to indicate that the Lakers hope to retain 38-year-old All-Star forward LeBron James even beyond his current contract, which takes him through the 2024/25 season, per Sean Deveney of Heavy.com. James has a player option for the last year of that deal, his age-40 season. “Nothing happens in a vacuum in all this,” a Western Conference executive told Deveney. “You sign AD to this deal, there is the Klutch connection there, and LeBron has a certain level of responsibility for what Davis does with the Lakers. So of course, there is communication there.” Deveney notes that James is widely anticipated to remain a Laker for the rest of his playing career.
Following a two-season stint with the Kings‘ NBAGL affiliate in Stockton, Jimmy Alapag has been promoted to a player development coaching gig with Sacramento and will join the coaching staff of reigning Coach of the Year Mike Brown, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Alapag, who was an 11-time All-Star while playing for the Philippine Basketball Association, initially coached in that league before joining the Kings’ Summer League bench in 2019.
In case you missed it, Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. has suggested that Golden State is amenable to four-time champ Andre Iguodala playing for a 20th season – and a ninth with the Warriors – but the club is not counting on his return like it did last summer. Iguodala, 39, only appeared in eight contests last year due to injuries. He has yet to officially retire.

Western Notes: Davis, Lakers, Kessler, Garuba, Canales

August 4th, 2023 at 11:03pm CST by Rory Maher

While the Lakers are certainly well aware of Anthony Davis‘ injury history, they were impressed with how he battled through his foot issues last season and recognized that he spearheaded their defensive turnaround after the trade deadline, with the club advancing to the Western Conference Finals despite a terrible start to 2022/23.

“They understand AD and his work ethic has shown,” Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul told Mark Medina of Sportskeeda on Friday. “He has some injuries, but it wasn’t due to him not working. It’s not like he came into camp overweight or showed any laziness. There were just fluke things. That happens in the game.”

Paul said the two sides are still determining whether Davis will have a player option in his new three-year extension, but it will not contain a team option.

Both Medina — writing for The Sporting Tribune — and Jovan Buha of The Athletic believe it’s a win-win for Davis and the Lakers, though there’s obviously some risk involved for Los Angeles. The two authors note that Davis could potentially have earned more money had he hit free agency in 2024.

Here’s more from around the West:

After a standout rookie season, Jazz center Walker Kessler, who will be representing Team USA at the upcoming World Cup, has added 15 pounds of muscle this offseason, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic. “A lot of the offseason has been about gaining weight and gaining strength,” Kessler said. “It’s been a lot of hard work. But I’m excited to try and put myself in a position to make a difference on the floor, so the work has been a lot of fun. I love the weight room. I love working on my body. I’m really excited to be a part of Team USA and extremely thankful that I get to be a part of this. I think the amount of talent and the amount of knowledge that’s going to be on the roster is amazing. I’m trying to learn as much as I can and use this experience to try and better myself in every way that I can.”
Speaking to Nacho Duke of Spanish outlet Marca, Thunder big man Usman Garuba said he hopes to spend the rest of his professional career in the NBA. “If possible, I intend to play my entire career in the NBA, and I’m going to push it to the maximum,” Garuba said, per BasketNews.com. “I do not think about another thing. Anything can happen, but I only have in mind to continue in the NBA all my professional life.” Oklahoma City acquired Garuba last month via trade.
Veteran assistant Kaleb Canales is joining the Texas Legends — the Mavericks‘ G League affiliate — as associate head coach, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Canales, who became the NBA’s first Mexican-American head coach in 2012, last worked for the Pacers in 2020/21. He also had stints with Portland, Dallas and New York over his lengthy coaching career, so it will be a reunion with the Mavs organization.

Lakers Notes: Reaves, 14th Man, Wood, Davis

August 4th, 2023 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who previously identified the Spurs and Rockets as teams that had some interest in him this offseason, said at this week’s Team USA training camp that his goal when he reached restricted free agency was always, “Get back to L.A.,” as Tim Bontemps of ESPN writes.

Signing an offer sheet with another team could have put Reaves in position to earn more than the $54MM over four years he’ll get from the Lakers, who were unable to offer him a higher salary (but could have matched a bigger offer sheet). However, when the two Texas-based teams decided not to seriously pursue him, Reaves was happy to simply re-sign with Los Angeles.

“I had a stressful probably 10 hours, but after that, when it was done, couldn’t be more excited with the situation, with the team that we got, going back to L.A.,” he said. “… We played out every scenario. My agents, we talked probably literally like 10, 11 hours straight that night about what we wanted in the contract, years, whatever. But like I said, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

The Lakers may prefer to fill their 14th roster spot sooner rather than later, according to Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times, who believes Christian Wood is probably still be the team’s top choice for that opening if he’s willing to sign for the veteran’s minimum. As Woike observes, L.A. could point to examples like Malik Monk and Dennis Schröder to sell Wood on the idea that he’d have the opportunity to thrive with the Lakers for a year on a minimum-salary deal and parlay that performance into a bigger payday.
Although the Lakers generally deploy Anthony Davis at center in their most important games and minutes, they continue to speak publicly about using lineups that pair him with another big man. Jovan Buha of The Athletic digs into that subject, expressing skepticism that the Lakers will use Davis at power forward alongside a center very often, given the make-up of their roster and the success they’ve had with AD at the five.
In case you missed it, the big news today in Laker Land is Davis’ three-year, maximum-salary contract extension. We have the full story on that agreement right here.

Anthony Davis Becomes Extension-Eligible

August 4th, 2023 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

Lakers big man Anthony Davis is now eligible to sign a veteran contract extension, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.

Davis officially signed his current contract, a five-year, maximum-salary deal, on December 3, 2020. Typically, a player who signs a five-year contract must wait three full calendar years before he becomes extension-eligible, but the 2020 offseason was an unusual one due to the schedule irregularities caused by COVID-19.

Free agency didn’t begin until November 21 that year, with the regular season tipping off on December 22. The NBA determined that Dec. 3 of that offseason would have corresponded to August 4 in a typical offseason, which is why Davis became extension-eligible today.

Davis has two years left on his current contract — he’s owed a guaranteed $40,600,080 salary in 2023/24, with an early termination option worth $43,219,440 in 2024/25.

Exercising an early termination option is essentially the same as declining a player option — in either case, the player ends his contract a year early. However, there’s one key difference: an early termination option can’t be exercised as part of a veteran extension agreement. That means that if Davis wants to sign an extension this offseason, he would have to decline that ETO, which would lock in his current 2024/25 salary and result in his new deal beginning in ’25/26.

Davis will have until the day before the regular season begins in October to sign an extension this year. If he and the Lakers haven’t worked out a new agreement by that time, he would have to wait until the 2024 offseason to revisit his contract situation. At that point, he could either opt into the final year of his current contract and extend off that deal, or opt out and seek a new contract as a free agent.

The maximum value of a potential extension for Davis will depend on the rate at which the NBA’s salary cap increases during the next two offseasons. In an NBA Today appearance on ESPN on Thursday (YouTube link), Marks stated that a three-year extension for Davis could be worth up to about $169.1MM, but that would be based on a relatively conservative cap projection in the neighborhood of $149MM in 2025/26.

If the cap were to increase by the maximum allowable 10% in each of the next two seasons, a three-year extension for Davis could instead be worth as much as $186.6MM.

That may seem like a risky investment for a player who has battled injuries throughout his career and who wasn’t necessarily playing at a superstar level offensively during the Lakers’ postseason run this spring (he averaged 22.6 points per game in 16 contests).

However, Davis is still one of the NBA’s top two-way stars when healthy, and he’s only 30 years old. It’s worth noting too that extending him now would pay off in the long run if the alternative is negotiating a maximum-salary free agent contract of up to five years in 2024. If the Lakers were to extend Davis now, they’d lock him into a salary below his max in 2024/25 and would only have to commit to up to four total seasons beyond ’23/24, rather than five, reducing some of the risk on the back end.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recently suggested that there’s an expectation the Lakers will make Davis an extension offer fairly soon, while his colleague Dave McMenamin predicted the two sides will have a deal in place before training camp.

Lakers Notes: Rotation, Point Guards, Christie, Hayes, Davis

August 1st, 2023 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Breaking down the Lakers‘ potential lineup decisions for the 2023/24 season, Jovan Buha of The Athletic forecasts a 10-man rotation, led by stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

At this point, Buha favors incumbent Lakers D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura – all of whom signed lucrative new contracts this offseason – to fill out the starting lineup. He predicts the 10-man rotation will be filled out by Jarred Vanderbilt, Max Christie, and newcomers Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, and Jaxson Hayes.

As Buha notes, the Lakers will want to avoid overworking James and Davis to ensure that they’re healthy for the playoffs, so players outside his projected 10-man rotation, including free agent addition Cam Reddish and rookies Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis, could get a chance to earn some minutes too.

Here’s more on the Lakers:

Although Buha has Russell penciled in as the starting point guard, he acknowledges that could change, observing that Vincent’s 3-and-D skill set is a better fit next to the Lakers’ stars. It’s a “coin flip” as to who will end up as the go-to point guard, Buha writes, suggesting that both players will have important roles.
Christie is the most difficult Laker to project for the 2023/24 season, says Buha. If he breaks out like he believes he can, he should have no problem securing a spot as the eighth or ninth man in the rotation. If not, he may end up battling Reddish for minutes as the 10th man.
According to Buha, the Lakers hope that Hayes will be able to start alongside Davis in scenarios when the team opts to roll with a two-big lineup. However, Buha doesn’t foresee a major regular role for Hayes, noting that there are only so many frontcourt minutes to go around as long as James, Davis, Hachimura, and Vanderbilt are healthy. If the Lakers were to sign another free agent center such as Christian Wood or Bismack Biyombo, Hayes’ spot in the regular rotation would be even less certain, though injuries and/or load management could ultimately open the door for him to play frequently.
In the latest Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Tim Bontemps, and Tim MacMahon discuss the fact that Davis will become extension-eligible later this week and consider the odds of he and the Lakers working out a deal before the season begins. Windhorst doesn’t necessarily expect the two sides to reach a deal immediately, but believes there’s mutual interest in working something out. “There’s no time crunch. He doesn’t have to make a decision by August 5 or anything,” Windhorst said. “But I do think there is an expectation that the Lakers do make some sort of offer this week, or at least show their intention to make such an offer.”

Magic Johnson: Pelinka Did Better Than Any GM This Offseason

July 30th, 2023 at 5:54pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Magic Johnson has high praise for Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, called Pelinka the “No. 1 GM in the NBA this offseason,” he told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times in a wide-ranging interview.

Johnson was impressed with Pelinka’s trade deadline acquisitions, which propelled the Lakers into the playoffs and all the way to the conference finals. This offseason, Pelinka has re-signed Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell, and added Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince, Cam Reddish and Jaxson Hayes.

“I think he followed it up with another outstanding job, first from the trade deadline and then he kept it going in the summer,” the Hall of Famer and former Lakers executive said. “He did better than anybody in the summer. All the moves he made, he was the No. 1 GM in the NBA this offseason. No question about it. All the guys that we signed will help (LeBron James) and the other guys because now we are deeper. Rob is going to be executive of the year.”

Johnson sees the Lakers as a serious contender for the title.

“This is a Western Conference championship team. We could actually win everything if we can stay healthy,” he said. “This team has a real shot. … It’s not going to be easy for Denver to repeat, even though you always got to pick the champion as the favorite right now, and I do. But the Lakers, Memphis with the trades they made, Phoenix and Golden State, and Sacramento and Denver, man, the West is going to be hard.”

Johnson is part of the ownership group that purchased the Washington Commanders of the NFL. Johnson said he has ties to Washington, D.C. than many people don’t realize.

“I’ve done business there in Washington, D.C.,” Johnson said. “And I told this story — and people forget this — I was the last person [former Lakers owner] Jack Kent Cooke signed and he had to sign me so that he could then sell the team to Dr. Buss [in 1979]. So, when Dr. Buss wrote him that check, he needed that check to buy the Washington Redskins. It’s that crazy. People don’t know that. That [$67.5 million] went a long way. So, I guess it’s destiny that I’m supposed to be a part of this because I’ve done so much in the city.”

Lakers Notes: LeBron, Buss, Pelinka, Davis, Fudge

July 28th, 2023 at 11:17am CST by Luke Adams

Regardless of how much longer LeBron James spends with the Lakers or how his remaining time with the team plays out, the franchise intends to eventually retire his number, team owner Jeanie Buss tells Mark Medina of SportsKeeda.

“The standard for having your jersey retired as a Laker is when a player is inducted into the Hall of Fame. I have absolutely no doubt that LeBron will make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame,” Buss said. “When he does so, then we will retire his jersey. Knowing that he will make it into the Basketball Hall of Fame, he will have his Lakers jersey retired, no doubt about it.”

As Medina observes, James wore a No. 23 jersey during his first three years with the Lakers and will switch back to No. 23 in 2023/24 after wearing No. 6 for the last two seasons. Buss wasn’t prepared to say whether the Lakers would eventually retire both numbers, but stressed that the team would still retire LeBron’s jersey even if he doesn’t finish his career with the franchise.

“It would mean a lot (if LeBron retires as a Laker). But it won’t change his contributions to Lakers history,” Buss said. “… A player like Shaquille O’Neal has meant so much to Lakers history, but he wasn’t a Laker when he retired from the NBA. But that didn’t change what his part of Lakers history was. When he retired from the NBA, we retired his Lakers jersey.”

Here’s more on the Lakers:

In her full interview with Medina, Buss addressed a wide range of Lakers-related topics, including her thoughts on the team’s finish in 2022/23, Rob Pelinka‘s performance, and much more. Regarding Pelinka, Buss explained why she stood by the club’s head of basketball operations when he was facing criticism for the acquisition of Russell Westbrook: “I always felt then and now that Rob was the right person to be in charge of our front office. I continued to do so. Every decision that is made isn’t always the perfect one. But it’s the decision you make after that that counts. We had a roster that didn’t work and wasn’t working. But you can’t change things overnight in the NBA. But you can set yourself up by making the next right decision. That’s exactly what Rob did. … Every decision, you have the opportunity to make the next right decision. That’s what Rob has proven.”
Asked about a possible contract extension for Anthony Davis, Buss declined to discuss the subject in any depth. However, in deferring to Pelinka, she hinted that she’d be on board with a new deal for Davis: “Rob said it best. Our intention is that we want to keep continuity with our team. I’ll leave it at that.”
The two-way contract that undrafted rookie Alex Fudge signed with the Lakers will cover two years rather than one, Hoops Rumors has learned. Fudge is the sixth player to sign a two-year two-way deal this offseason, as our tracker shows.

Lakers Sign Alex Fudge To Two-Way Deal, Waive Cole Swider

July 26th, 2023 at 4:33pm CST by Arthur Hill

4:51pm: The contract with Fudge is official, the Lakers announced (via Twitter).

4:33pm: The Lakers will sign Alex Fudge to a two-way contract, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. They will open up a two-way slot by waiving Cole Swider, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Fudge, a 20-year-old forward, put up modest numbers during his college career at LSU and Florida, averaging 4.6 and 3.9 rebounds over two seasons.

Fudge played for L.A.’s Summer League team, and although his statistics didn’t stand out, he impressed the Lakers enough with his athleticism to earn a two-way opportunity. A previous report had indicated he would be signing an Exhibit 10 contract with the team.

Swider, a 24-year-old small forward, signed a two-way contract with L.A. last summer after going undrafted out of Villanova. He appeared in just seven games for the Lakers, spending most of his rookie year in the G League, where he averaged 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 27 regular season games.

Swider’s contract for the upcoming season is non-guaranteed, so L.A. won’t be on the hook for any more money. Colin Castleton and D’Moi Hodge occupy the team’s other two-way spots.

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