The Lakers have a large chunk of cap space this off-season and while they have a long-term plan to get this team back to championship contention, there could be some intriguing young free agents this season that the team could pursue.
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One of those is Detroit Pistons forward Greg Monroe. With Stan Van Gundy now in control of all basketball decisions, many around the league expect the team to allow Monroe to leave. According to The Sporting News’ Sean Deveney, one of the biggest pursuers of the restricted free agent could be the Lakers:
The Lakers are the other team most frequently mentioned among league executives when it comes to Monroe. If L.A. does not make any splashy moves around the draft, and if the Lakers are ready to concede that Carmelo Anthony is not coming, then they figure to target young, second-tier free agents—and Monroe is at the head of that list
The Lakers will obviously go after the big-name players should they become free agents like Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh. However, the likelihood of one of those guys coming to L.A. is slim at best.
Someone like Greg Monroe would be an excellent addition to the team. With the team having very few options in the front court, Monroe would fit in perfectly and he could become what Pau Gasol has been for this team for years.
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The worrisome part is that he will be looking for a max contract, and the Lakers can’t afford to give him that kind of money, especially if they expect to go after Kevin Love next off-season.
This will be an interesting thing to watch this off-season. If the Lakers are trying to win immediately and bring in good young players for the future, there are few better than Monroe.
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