The Los Angeles Lakers are playing stellar basketball and look like one of the best teams in the league heading into the postseason. How they perform could directly correlate with their summer plans, when they project to have around $50 million in cap space.
The summer of 2026 has been lauded as a massive one for the Lakers for over a year now, as what they decide to do will likely determine the remainder of Luka Doncic’s current contract with L.A. And it appears, at least in part, that retaining some key free agents will be a priority, according to Dave McMenamin and Tim Bontemps of ESPN:
The Lakers aren’t expected to take that $50 million and give it to another star instead of James. They have interest in re-signing Reaves, Jaxson Hayes and Luke Kennard, team sources told ESPN, not to mention Hachimura, if the price is right. Reaves will decline a $14.9 million player option and enter unrestricted free agency, sources familiar with his plans told ESPN.
Austin Reaves’ cap hold is already figured into the $50 million cap space estimation, but giving him a big-money, long-term deal could eat into some of that. They only have full bird rights on Rui Hachimura, meaning if they want to pay Luke Kennard or give a raise to Jaxson Hayes, they would need to use some of that cap space.
It seems — based on this report — that the Lakers may not be going star hunting with their cap flexibility. Instead, they seem to be looking for ways to improve the depth and overall talent on the roster, which would absolutely be the correct approach.
And if LeBron James wants to return on a deal that makes sense for both sides, L.A. would not need to use cap space to make that happen, as they have his full bird rights as well.
JJ Redick believes Lakers’ Luka Doncic should be MVP
The MVP race has become an oft-discussed topic for the Lakers, as everyone in the organization believes Doncic should be getting more love for the award than he has been. Lakers head coach JJ Redick said that if Doncic has a strong final seven games, he absolutely should be the MVP.
It seems more likely that the award will go to either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Victor Wembanyama, but Doncic could swoop in at the last second and take some first place votes away. Redick’s ideal world certainly has that happening.
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