One of those players is not Luol Deng, BUT if you remember from Eric Pincus' piece back in November(link below); it might be in the best interest for LA to give him an extension under the current CBA rules.
<insert surprised white guy gif>
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Johnson and Pelinka may try to find similar trades but with fewer teams flush with cap space, the market to dump contracts may get even tighter. The solution for the Lakers may be a loophole in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement.
As of July 7, Deng is eligible for a three-year extension. Given the need to get him off the books, why would the Lakers add on to his contract?
The answer is the league's stretch provision, which allows for players to be waived with their contracts paid out over twice the length of the remaining deal, plus one season.
With the $36.8 million owed to Deng over the next two, the Lakers can stretch him out to $7.4 million over five years, which would open $9.8 million in additional cap space in July.
That isn't quite enough to get to two max slots, putting the Lakers at about $57.3 million in space.
That's where a Deng extension can help, with the caveat that any additional salary doesn't have to be guaranteed. By adding three years to his deal with no extra money guaranteed, the Lakers would have the ability to stretch Deng's salary over 11 total years, at $3.3 million a season.
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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2743657-to-make-room-for-2-stars-lakers-should-give-luol-deng-an-extension-seriously
Not so crazy after all. It might even be smart.
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Or it might be completely unnecessary. We don't know. There's still time to figure it out...But as we get closer to offseason signings this thread is dedicated to the watch of this wonderful WTF loophole.
This thread was started in Feb. 2018. #FreeDengMovement