The NBA’s offseason moratorium period came to an end of Sunday, which signaled the start of the new league year and the ability for the Los Angeles Lakers to officially make roster moves.
Those moves included completed a historic seven-team trade that landed them 36th overall draft pick Adou Thiero. They then inked Thiero to his rookie contract while also signing their three free agents in Deandre Ayton, Jake LaRavia and Jaxson Hayes.
Hayes’ contract was reported to be for one year, but the money was not yet known. The Lakers had the ability to give him a 120% raise on his contract from last season and according to Bobby Marks of ESPN, that’s exactly what they did with Hayes set to make $3.4 million:
I have the Lakers able to use up to $3.9M of their $5.1M Bi-annual Exception should they waive Shake Milton's non-guaranteed contract. Hayes' salary is $3.4M (120% of his 6 YOS min, though they had Early Bird)
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) July 7, 2025
This complicates the Lakers’ offseason a bit as they are hard-capped at the first apron of the salary cap after using their non-taxpayer mid-level exception. That also gives them use of the $5.1 million bi-annual exception (BAE), which has not been used.
In order to have access to that though, the Lakers must stay below that first apron of $195.9 million. L.A. is currently at $195 million and the easiest way to get closer to opening up the full BAE would be to waive Shake Milton’s $3 million non-guaranteed contract. Even still though, that would only open up $3.9 million of spending power.
It’s possible that a trade to slash salary is in the works, but until that happens, the Lakers will not be able to offer one of the remaining free agents the full $5.1 million BAE, which could hurt their ability to further improve their roster this summer.
The Lakers have been linked to some potential remaining free agents like De’Anthony Melton and Al Horford, although given how much the market has slowed down in recent days, they may be waiting on a team like L.A. to open up more money to offer.
Luka Doncic involved in Lakers’ offseason plans
According to recent reports, Luka Doncic is privy to all the moves the Lakers have been making this offseason. He shares an agent, Bill Duffy of WME Basketball, with both of the Lakers’ two center signings in Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes.
The Lakers obviously are hoping to sign Doncic to a contract extension when he becomes eligible in August, so perhaps that was also a factor in giving someone like Hayes a raise on his new contract as a favor to the agency ahead of the upcoming negotiations.
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