re: Lakers Offseason Thread - Kyrie recruiting Lebron to DAL

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People have had over four days to vote, and the vote is 19-17 in favor.

Thus, we will have a Lakers Offseason Thread.

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OK...speaking of the Lakers, Austin Reaves will be their 3rd best player next year (I prefer to call it "3rd most valuable player"...but whatever) So, who will be the Pels 3rd best player next year?

OK...you guessed it...Herb Freekin' Jones !! (Comin' on strong !!)

Also, since the Nuggets swept the Lakers, I guess it's OK for me to go ahead & say that..."Barring injuries, Jokic will be an all-time NBA top 10 player by the time he retires". (Maybe even top 5)

That's all I've got to say about the Lakers...at the moment.

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o, who will be the Pels 3rd best player next year?

OK...you guessed it...Herb Freekin' Jones !! (Comin' on strong !!)

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Never would have guessed it

But seriously, if this is the case, we are in trouble. Herb is a great basketball player and I hope he is a Pelican forever, but I don't ever want a Herb Jones type guy to be my third best player. We need to be better than that.

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OK...speaking of the Lakers, Austin Reaves will be their 3rd best player next year (I prefer to call it "3rd most valuable player"...but whatever) So, who will be the Pels 3rd best player next year?

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Love Reaves, enjoyed him in college before he rose to being what he was able to become this year for a team that lacked someone else that can score the basketball when open….

He took full advantage of that. There has been many guys throughout lebrons career that has made a ton of money due to being in the “lebron system” if given the opp to buy in. Reaves bought in big time and his growth may have paid for generations in his family… I think he has a win/win situation ahead of him.

Take less money and stay with LA and continue to be in the light of everything that is going on and hope to continue to capitalize on it…

Or

Move on, and secure that bag knowing the future is more unknown and the path will be harder than ever before… but, you have secured the bag.

Def think he cannot lose with either choice.

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Love Reaves, enjoyed him in college before he rose to being what he was able to become this year for a team that lacked someone else that can score the basketball when open….

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When we start looking at the Lakers' offseason, the #1 question (aside from the LeBron retirement stuff) is how much the Lakers are going to have to pay to sign Reaves to a new deal.

The Lakers currently only have LeBron, Davis, and Max Christie under contract for next season. They will guarantee Vanderbilt's contract, but after that, they have to rebuild the roster again, and Reaves is a RFA. The Lakers are in the uncomfortable position of needing to match whatever offer Reaves gets.

As a two-year RFA, Reaves falls under the Arenas Rule. Here's an explanation:

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The Arenas Rule extends to any player who is entering restricted free agency after their second year in the league. Because the incumbent team — in this case the Lakers — only has early bird rights, they would be unable to give that player anything beyond the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. This summer, that number is projected to be around $12.2 million via Spotrac.

With that said, the most the Lakers can offer Reaves themselves is a four-year contract with the first-year salary being $12.2 million. This totals out to a four-year contract worth slightly more than $52 million.

This is where the Arenas Rule comes into effect.

Opposing teams are only allowed to offer Reaves a contract that matches the non-taxpayer midlevel exception for the first two seasons. But, as long as a team offers Reaves the NTMLE max for the first two seasons, they can offer a third and fourth year that match the league maximum for a third-year player.

In this case, Year 3 and Year 4 would be worth around $35.3 million and $37.1 million, respectively. So another team could offer Reaves a four-year deal worth a maximum of just under $98 million.

If another team opts to do this, the Lakers have the ability to match that, or any, offer, provided they have the ability to give him the $12.2 million NTMLE in Year 1. For the Lakers, the cap hits for each year would be the exact numbers as offered.

In another wrinkle, teams offering Reaves that four-year, $98 million maximum must have at least $24.5 million, approximately, in cap space. This is because if the Lakers choose not to match, the contract is smoothed out over the four years on the opposing team’s cap sheet. This means instead of $12.2 million in Year 1 for the Lakers, it reflects as $24.5 million for another team.

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Rui Hachimura is also a RFA, and the Lakers are supposedly going to match whatever offer he gets as well.

This is going to leave them without any room to make a deal for Kyrie. I personally don't see any way that happens.

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AR15

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Really?? Can't we just fricking say Reaves??

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Really?? Can't we just fricking say Reaves??

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We can but we can also say AR15.

When do we start a Bucks offseason thread?

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If they give Reaves the bag that he would collect on the free market, they won't have the space to bring back D'Lo and Vanderbilt. Or Schroeder, Lonnie, and Rui.

They can bring back Reaves, D Lo, Vando, and Rui with no issues. They can also trade Bamba and Beasley who have team options.

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Am I misreading? Seems your comments contradict each other.

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D Lo

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It's almost guaranteed that they aren't going to bring him back. He wants too much money and is mad about getting benched in the WCF.

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the true difference was Bron/AD health and simply removing Westbrook from the roster.

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That was in the playoffs. Getting to the playoffs was a different story.

But I would also argue that the other true difference was the maturation of Austin Reaves's game.