LA Lakers rumors indicate the team wants to sign both LaMarcus Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan. The Lakers want to team up Kobe Bryant with the two free agent big men to make a run at the NBA postseason again. A report from CBS Sports late Tuesday night (June 30) confirms that this is the plan of the front office in Los Angeles. The minor problem, though, is that the team cannot offer max contracts to both Aldridge and Jordan.
Kobe Bryant is still the highest paid player in the NBA and the Lakers are giving him $25 million for the 2015-16 season. It takes away the chance to offer two max contracts in free agency, especially with the salaries to Julius Randle and De’Angelo Russell also on the books. What the Lakers will try to do, is convince one or both of the big men to take a short-term pay cut to make it all work.
This could put the Lakers at a disadvantage in free agency, but there are certainly strategies that could make it work in favor of the team. Offering one-year contracts to LaMarcus Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan with the promise of a salary bump in the next NBA offseason might just work. The contract of Kobe Bryant will be off the books when it is expected he will retire, leaving a lot of money under the salary cap for the Lakers to spend.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr , Bryant is already using his charm to try to lure free agents to Los Angeles. He hasn’t clarified publicly what he is telling these All-Star players, but it likely involves playing for a franchise with an illustrious history and a team captain (Bryant) that has won five NBA titles before. It’s a good sales pitch, but it won’t get very far unless these players are willing to take contracts that are less than what other teams might offer.
It’s clear that there are going to be a lot of moving parts when the NBA free agency period finally opens, and that there are quite a few questions that teams have to get answered. When it comes to the LA Lakers rumors that are floating around, it seems like every big name player that has become a free agent is linked to Los Angeles. Now the biggest question becomes how good is Kobe Bryant at convincing people to join him for another title run?
[Image Source: Christian Petersen/Getty Images]
