The NBA offseason transaction period is underway, and the Los Angeles Lakers have a lot of work to do to improve their roster to compete for a championship.
The good news is that the Lakers can open up the most cap space in the NBA, and they also have two first-round picks to trade in 2031 and 2033 if they want. One player to pay attention to on the trade market seems to be Cameron Johnson of the Denver Nuggets, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype:
Meanwhile, as the Nuggets navigate getting below the second apron, sharpshooting forward Cam Johnson has drawn trade interest from several teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Clippers, and Orlando Magic, league sources told HoopsHype. The 30-year-old forward shot career-highs from the field (.480) and beyond the arc (.430), and is on an expiring $23.06 million contract for the upcoming season.
Johnson would be a nice fit for the Lakers as he is just 30 years of age and an exceptional 3-point shooter that would play well off of Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. He is not known as a lockdown defender but can hold his own on that end of the court.
With the Nuggets hoping to bring back restricted free agent Peyton Watson, they are trying to clear some salary by trading away someone like Johnson. Because of that, the Lakers are in a prime position here as they are one of the only teams with enough cap space to absorb Johnson’s $23 million salary without sending any salary back to Denver.
If L.A. is willing to do this, then perhaps it may not even take any draft compensation to get the deal done, or they would be receiving some since they would be helping out the Nuggets. Then, the Lakers can use the rest of their cap space and assets to improve the roster elsewhere with the center position being an obvious need.
Deandre Ayton expected to pick up Lakers player option
Deandre Ayton holds an $8.1 million player option for the 2026-27 season and the expectation is that he will be picking it up. That puts him under contract with the Lakers for another season, although it also makes him eligible to be traded this offseason.
Ayton provided good value for the Lakers on his contract last season but also isn’t a perfect fit with Doncic and Reaves, so the team may look for upgrades this offseason.
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