Lakers Cap Situation in 2018?

[DanishLakerFan]

Sorry Ive been searching for cap situation throughout the internet but failed to get any accurate information.

My real concern is would it be possible to get two max without renouncing Randle's 13m cap hold.

It's going to depend on who those max guys are.

A max contract can be 25%, 30% or 35% of the cap depending on how long they've been in the league.

35% (10 yr vet) would be the Lebron, Westbrook, Durant etc.
30% (7-9 yrs) - Boogie, PG13.
25% (up to 6 yrs) - Wiggins, Randle, KCP etc.

With the cap at 103M, there is a pretty big difference between 2 x 25% max Guys (51.5M) and 2x35% max guys (72.1M).

The actual targets are Lebron, Westbrook, Boogie and PG13, so we'd need somewhere between 62 and 72M worth of spending power assuming these guys wont take a pay-cut.

If we want to keep Randle's 2018 cap hold of 12.4M we'd need to trade Clarkson along with someone like Larry Nance Jr. and take back an expiring deal in the process. That would clear up about 59M which is very close to 62M which would be what Boogie and George would demand. Would they be willing to take 1.5M less in order for the Lakers to keep a guy like Randle? Possibly. If not, they could still waive or move or waive some of the cheaper guys such a Zu, Ennis and T.Bryant etc.

Now if one of the targets is Lebron and the other target is Boogie or George, then there is no way to keep Randle's cap hold unless Lebron takes pay-cut (which is unlikely), or if we move one of Ball or Ingram (which would be stupid) or if we trade Deng's contract, which is difficult.


In my humble opinion, the best course of action is try very hard to move both Deng and Clarkson right now or during the season because i dont think teams will be lining up to take on bad deals next summer in order for the Lakers to sign a couple of max guys. While Deng might be too difficult to move, i do think we can move Clarkson relatively easy.

[Dloading99]

if it's superstars all good. if not we gotta bring our guys back.

Lopez Randle get your Paychecks ready.

[meetbishop]

I have this question an am looking for the right place to ask.

Lets say the Lakers are able to create room for signing two max contracts. If they are not afraid of paying luxury tax can they sign KCP, Brooks and/or Randle even if it puts them over the cap and will have to pay luxury tax?

Is there no way we can also have -39mil in cap space as the warriors have as shown here http://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/

[danfantastk32]

I have this question an am looking for the right place to ask.

Lets say the Lakers are able to create room for signing two max contracts. If they are not afraid of paying luxury tax can they sign KCP, Brooks and/or Randle even if it puts them over the cap and will have to pay luxury tax?

Is there no way we can also have -39mil in cap space as the warriors have as shown here http://www.spotrac.com/nba/cap/

The short answer is no. Your not allowed to sign someone, if it takes you over the cap. In the warriors case...the RE-SIGNED all their guys, and your allowed to do that all day long. That's the trick in the NBA: Have youth, and a couple stars....and you can resign the youth down the road...and it's not a problem. The issue with Randle, is there is a deadline to "lock" your current players up, or else they go into free-agency. So you can't sign Lebron and Westbrook....and then resign Randle. Gotta do Randle first.

Now the good news is that there is a long answer! There are all sorts of little tricks. Your allowed some wiggle-room on the cap, your allowed to use part of your mid-level exception towards a FA, if your not over the cap already...etc etc etc. You look at rosters like GS, and Cleveland, and you can see the rules are clearly no etched in stone. Another thing that helps, is that we would be signing our 2 stars, and no re-signing them. That means we don't pay so much. If someone like PG wanted to do a sign and trade (More $$ for him) then that trade would surely include Deng. It would have to. A sign and trade is unlikely.....but if we decided Kuzma was our PF going forward, then we might sign Randle, and then do a sign & trade with OKC for PG. Rande/Deng/Hart/2ndround for PG. <----It makes PG happy, we get rid of alot of space...and OKC walks away getting something (assuming they want any of that). Deng falls off in 2 years, and they move on. Randle would have a 4-year semi-decent contract...so OKC would like that.

If we wanna keep Randle, then we shop Clarkson. Throw a 2nd-rounder, or one of our young pieces in to sweeten the deal. If all else fails, then we just stretch Deng, and call it a day. Point is.....if we decide to go that route...we will have the space for Lebron/PG or whatever combo we are chasing.

My warning though: Before you worry about 2 super-stars.....let's sit back and see what KCP and Lopez and Randle and Kuzma and Zubac do this year. If Lopez balls out, and plays that stretch-5 great...or if Kuzma just tears it up....or if Randle finds his game with Ball.....you might see the plan change considerably. KCP might come here and be the next Klay. <-- Not likely, but who knows. We gotta see who works with Ball this year, and take it from there.

[Kilroy]

The thing to keep in mind with these discussions is that the opinions expressed here on this forum, in these kinds of threads, are always incomplete... There always seems to be more wiggle room in the cap than we, even the most knowledgeable fans and even some of the 'insiders,' foresee...
Point being, the discussion is fun, but don't get too caught up in the details.

For instance... In general, it seems like if we want to sign LeBron and George this off-season, Randle will have to go. But is that about the cap situation, or more about the fact that he plays the exact same role as LeBron would? Huge fan of Randle, but if we get LeBron, I have no problem seeing him go... But that's easy right... You just don't offer him a contract.

Deng has to go. Clarkson is unnecessary right now, even with no max guys coming in.
You're not going to find too many better options at role-playing center than Brook Lopez... So it might make sense to try to renegotiate with him... He's also almost the perfect 5 for a team run by Ball...
KCP is going to have to probably take less to play with LeBron... If he won't, bye.
Nance is almost certainly going to attract bigger offers than we will be able to match... So he's probably going to leave too...
Ingram is either going to bust out this year, or he may just bust... So that may be a non-factor by the time his contract is up...
Guys like Kuzma and Hart etc, are not even worth worrying about from a CAP perspective yet...

So if LeBron uses his Wonder-Friend Powers on Westbrook and George, it certainly doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility that they could all be on the Big Ballers in a season or so...

But it's still an absolute pipe dream and only marginally worth thinking about at this point. This season should be interesting enough to keep our attention.

[JohnVancouver]

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/la-lakers-2017-18-season-preview/