IF Melo comes to Lakers

[TruSkool]

Can someone break down what Melo's contract may look like? Including Kobe, and resigning some of these guys, what does the cap look like? Is it possible to add another solid free agent alongside Melo and Kobe? Will Pau be able to stay or does he leave?
I'm really starting to think that Melo is coming to LA because he's constantly bashing the knicks. I know he's not the long term answer but I do think the lakers will take the gamble to get Kobe another ring before he retires. I just want to know if LA will be able to sign a 3rd legit player?

[Dr Aki]

melo 22 mil, 7.5% raises.

little to no capspace for much else

[Sofa King]

I hope he stays in New York.

[SlimShady83]

Don't have the exact quote but Kobe posted on twitter not long time ago

### "Lakers have enough money to make a run at a max player and then some" You need to know more then just basketball and know the in's n out's.

Maybe someone can find that quote.

I don't feel that us fan's no enough about how it all works and we will be surprised on what the Lakers will achieve in the next couple season

[EArl]

I hope he stays in New York.

[dockingsched]

http://cbafaq.com/blog/?p=286

The salary cap next summer is projected to be $62.9 million. The Lakers will also have their own first round draft pick. Based on their current record, this pick would fall around #15, and would therefore count around $1.5 million against their cap.This would give them a total of about $37.66 million for six players. We need to add another six cap holds totaling $3,04 million, which brings the total to about $40,70 million.

With this team salary, the Lakers would have about $22.2 million in cap room next summer. This will be enough for one maximum-salary player — for example, Carmelo Anthony is eligible to receive up to $22,458,401. While this is slightly above the Lakers’ maximum, there are other things the team can do to create more cap room if Anthony doesn’t want to take slightly less than the amount for which he ls eligible.

The team can save a small amount if it waives Elias Harris’ non-guaranteed salary. A larger savings will come if they waive Steve Nash and utilize the Stretch provision on him. If this happens, only $3.23 million of Nash’s full $9.7 million salary will remain on their books.

If they remove both Harris and Nash, their team salary will drop to about $34.44 million, which would give them about $28.46 million in cap room. This would give them the opportunity to sign one maximum-salary player, and a second player at around the mid-level amount. They would also be eligible to utilize the Room Mid-Level exception for around $2.7 million.

However, this assumes they let all of their free agents walk, including Pau Gasol, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar, Xavier Henry, Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, and Jodie Meeks. If the wish to retain any of these players, they will remain on the team’s cap — in fact, Gasol’s cap hold alone will eat up most of the team’s cap room. To free up the potential cap room, these players will have to either:

a) Re-sign with the Lakers, in which case their new salary will count against the team’s cap, which will reduce their cap room for signing free agents.

b) Sign elsewhere, in which case they will be lost.

c) Be renounced by the Lakers, in which case the team loses the ability to sign them using Bird rights.

[Kilroy]

Let's keep all this talk in the FA thread... A lot can happen between now and the time Melo can sign here as a free agent.