The Los Angeles Lakers have been relatively quiet so far in free agency having only signed wing Jake LaRavia to a two-year deal. The team did lose an extremely important piece, however, as wing Dorian Finney-Smith left L.A. to join the Houston Rockets on a four-year, $53 million deal.
The money is the going rate for a player of Finney-Smith’s caliber, but the the four years on the contract was a bit of a surprise as, while still playing at a high level, the wing is already 32 years old. And it was those extra years that ultimately made the difference.
According to Dan Woike of The Athletic, the Lakers offered Finney-Smith only a two-year deal as they continue to value flexibility down the line to try and land another superstar to pair with Luka Doncic in the future:
And losing Finney-Smith to the Houston Rockets came with its own set of issues. The Lakers, according to team sources, offered two years against the four-year, $53 million deal he got with Houston because they wanted to maintain as much future flexibility as possible to be in position to land a superstar down the line to pair with Dončić.
The Lakers’ desire to maintain future flexibility has been spoken about at length recently. That the franchise has its eyes on the future makes a lot of sense as building the right team around Doncic should be the priority. But superstar-caliber players rarely hit free agency anymore and Doncic isn’t just someone to build around in the future, he is someone to build around right now.
Finney-Smith was very close with Doncic from their time together in Dallas, so to lose him now is undoubtedly a blow. The future is important, but losing a player so crucial to their success in the present hurts as well and likely won’t sit well with the player they are basing their future around as well.
‘Strong possibility’ Lakers will sign center DeAndre Ayton
A lot of centers the Lakers were believed to be targeting this summer are off the board in free agency now, but an unexpected addition to that group was DeAndre Ayton, who was bought out by the Portland Trail Blazers just before the start of free agency, and he remains linked to L.A.
There is reportedly a ‘strong possibility’ that the former No. 1 overall pick will sign with the Lakers. He fits the ideal mold L.A. is looking for in a big man to pair with Luka and LeBron and he should be motivated even more after a couple of decent, but not great years in Portland.
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