After a quiet opening night of free agency, the Lakers got to work. On July 1, they agreed to a sign-and-trade for Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler and agreed to sign Quentin Grimes, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Collin Sexton. A week later, they added Kevon Looney on a one-year, veteran-minimum contract.
In total, the Lakers have shelled out more than a quarter-billion dollars this summer. After entering free agency with the ability to create more than $50 million in salary-cap space, they’re now basically
out of spending power.
There may be another shoe still to drop, though.
The Lakers traded Deandre Ayton to the Washington Wizards for Jaden Hardy and two second-round picks. Flipping Ayton’s $8.1 million salary for Hardy’s $6.0 million salary gives the Lakers a bit of remaining cap space, but not enough to do anything meaningful with… yet.
The Lakers renounced the rights to all of their remaining free agents—and the cap holds for Lakers legends such as Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters—to give themselves enough cap room to make the Kessler, Grimes and Mamukelashvili deals official. They’re now free to sign Sexton with the room mid-level exception and can officially sign Austin Reaves to his new four-year, $184.8 million max contract… unless they have something else (Jonathan Kuminga?) up their sleeves.
The Lakers have no remaining salary-cap exceptions after spending the room MLE, so they can only offer minimum contracts to other free agents for now. They do have a pathway to create more cap space for Kuminga or another free agent, although it would likely involve either salary-dumping Jarred Vanderbilt or waiving him and stretching the remainder of his contract.
Since Looney is signing a one-year deal, his $3.9 million contract will count as only $2.45 million on the Lakers’ books, and they’ll add him via the minimum exception once they’re done spending cap space. They’re also now hard-capped at the first apron after acquiring Kessler via sign-and-trade.
Here’s a look at where the Lakers stand financially in the wake of their free-agent flurry and the Ayton trade.
Once the Lakers sign Reaves and Sexton to their new deals, they’re projected to be less than $5 million below the $200.4 million luxury-tax line and roughly $13 million below their first-apron hard cap.
Since the Lakers can’t cross the first apron this season, they will have considerable in-season trade flexibility. Teams above the first apron can’t take back more salary than they send out in trades, but teams below it can take back significantly more.
Kessler, Grimes, Mamukelashvili and Sexton won’t be trade-eligible until Dec. 15 at the earliest, but that’s something to file away for ahead of the trade deadline.
Can the Lakers create more cap space?
Between Reaves, Sexton, Grimes, Luka Dončić and rookie Cameron Carr, the Lakers now appear to be set in the backcourt. Their frontcourt is also in fairly good shape between Kessler, Mamukelashvili, Looney, Vanderbilt and Jake LaRavia.
However, their situation at the three leaves much to be desired, barring a massive leap from either Adou Thiero or an immediate impact from Carr.
Even if Reaves, Dončić and Grimes all start together in a three-guard lineup, the Lakers could use some additional wing help. They have a few pathways to continue adding to their roster this offseason despite being capped out.
The Lakers could always look to salary-dump Vanderbilt ($12.4 million), but they don’t have much left to sweeten any trade offers. They now have zero tradable first-round picks, only one remaining first-round swap (2032), but do have three second round picks now after the Ayton trade.
They could also pull a 2025 Milwaukee Bucks and waive-and-stretch Vanderbilt. Doing so would leave them with a $5.1 million dead cap hit in each of the next five seasons, but that would equip them with an additional $7.3 million of spending power this summer. They’d have to spend that newfound cap space before they officially signed Sexton, Reaves or Looney to their new contracts.
As the game of free-agency musical chairs runs out, the Lakers might be able to snag a wing for cheap — perhaps even on a minimum contract — since they can offer a legitimate role. Playing alongside an elite playmaker like Dončić could help players improve their market value moving forward, too. But if the Lakers hang on to Vanderbilt, they’re likely done with their big moves in free agency.
Do the additions of Kessler, Mamukelashvili, Grimes, Sexton and Looney outweigh the departures of LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Marcus Smart, Ayton and Hachimura? Do the Lakers have something else up their sleeves? We’ll find out soon enough.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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