Lakers Extend $1.9M Qualifying Offer To Talen Horton-Tucker

[RealGM Wiretap]

The Los Angeles Lakers have extended a qualifying offer to Talen Horton-Tuckers, making him a restricted free agent.

The qualifying offer for Horton-Tucker is $1.9 million.

The Lakers have "early Bird rights" and can re-sign Horton-Tucker for a contract that projects to start at $10.4 million, according to Marks. The contract must last a minimum of two seasons.

Horton-Tucker averaged 9.0 points on 45.8% shooting with 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 steals in more than 20 minutes per game last season.

Via Dave McMenamin/ESPN

[MrMiyagi]

Lakers are going to regret such a disrespectful offer to a future Hall of Famer. SMH.

[_BALLDONTLIE]

Lakers are going to regret such a disrespectful offer to a future Hall of Famer. SMH.

It's a just formality not a legit offer. Now they wait and see what other team put his value at and respond accordingly.

[njknicks]

THT will never reach his full potential / full earning capability until he leaves LA.

Lebron plans to play 4 more seasons
AD is signed long-term
Lakers have outright said they need a dynamic playmaker / gaurd

All this points to THT getting limited playing time which will stifle his growth as a player for the next 4 to 5 seasons.

THT's agent should simply request the Lakers to not match any offer - he should bet on himself and join a team that legitimately will give him an opportunity to thrive.

OKC / Orlando would probably be the best fit.

[madmaxmedia]

This is somewhat interesting as it gets into various cap rules and implications for offer sheets:

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/anonymous-executive-reportedly-says-hed-max-out-talen-horton-tucker-but-thats-not-as-crazy-as-it-sounds/

In simpler terms, that means that no team can legally offer Horton-Tucker more than the Lakers are allowed to pay him.

There's a catch though, and it's one that could come back to bite the Lakers later. Only the first two years of the deal are protected by the Arenas provision. The last two years can pay him anything up to his max. The team signing Horton-Tucker to that deal can average out the cap hits across the four years provided they have the short-term space to do so, but the Lakers, as a team operating above the cap, cannot. If they matched such an offer sheet to Horton-Tucker, they would be paying him max money in the last two years of the deal. In total, the deal would pay Horton-Tucker roughly $83 million over four years, but over $60 million would be paid out in the last two seasons.

In 2016, for example, the Brooklyn Nets offered Tyler Johnson a backloaded $50 million offer sheet through the Arenas provision...Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik signed similar deals with the Houston Rockets in 2013.

Has he actually shown enough yet for someone to put together that sort of offer sheet (or just somewhere close to it, say 4 year/$70M)? Will his 3PT% ever get better? That would seem to be really important if he's going to become a good NBA starter at the 2.

[madmaxmedia]

THT will never reach his full potential / full earning capability until he leaves LA.

Lebron plans to play 4 more seasons
AD is signed long-term
Lakers have outright said they need a dynamic playmaker / gaurd

All this points to THT getting limited playing time which will stifle his growth as a player for the next 4 to 5 seasons.

THT's agent should simply request the Lakers to not match any offer - he should bet on himself and join a team that legitimately will give him an opportunity to thrive.

OKC / Orlando would probably be the best fit.

Lakers are just going to decide based on the actual offer sheet, if it is significantly back-loaded they will have to really think about it. I don't know what Laker fans think or want.

[TimeisIllmatic]

THT will never reach his full potential / full earning capability until he leaves LA.

Lebron plans to play 4 more seasons
AD is signed long-term
Lakers have outright said they need a dynamic playmaker / gaurd

All this points to THT getting limited playing time which will stifle his growth as a player for the next 4 to 5 seasons.

THT's agent should simply request the Lakers to not match any offer - he should bet on himself and join a team that legitimately will give him an opportunity to thrive.

OKC / Orlando would probably be the best fit.

His agent is Rich Paul and I am sure he will hope to keep him in LA