05-23-2023, 08:31 AM
(05-23-2023, 08:18 AM)ItsGoTime Wrote: Ok, the only angle that hasn’t been thrown out there is Lebron restructuring his contract. If Lebron takes the paycut to get Kyrie, all bets are off. That also falls under what I was talking about with a team being able to sign him with space. At least I believe that is an angle, if not, I have a hard time believing Kyrie would take that much of a paycut to play another non-championship season with Lebron, who BTW leaves to his son’s drafted team the season after.
Interesting angle. However assuming, LeBron doesn't take the paycut, Kyrie to Lakers doesn't make much sense for them, all things considered. The cost would be just too high. Their strength right now is in huge flexibility they have with their contracts (Beasley, Bamba). Assuming Reaves gets 20 mil and the "hard cap" is at 180 mil, Lakers would look:
LeBron - 53
AD - 40.6
Reaves - 20
Vandy - 4.7
Christie - 1.7
This is roughly 120 mil, leaving them 60 mil to play with. They can keep Beasley and Bamba or trade them for similar salary with their assets. Both are overpaid so negotiating a new deal with one or both, letting one or both go are all also all options. Russell had a really bad season so no idea what his market is. Lets say 15 mil for old time sakes. So the three mentioned combined are around 40 mil, leaving 20 mil for remaining minimum 6 players. Dump a bit of salary from Bamba/Beasley options and they can easily resign Hachimura and sign full MLE.
If they go for Kyrie at his max salary and resign Reaves at mentioned 20 mil, they would be basically limited to some 15 mil of budget for remaining 8 players, no matter how they execute the Irving SnT. I find it hard to believe they are better this way.
Another interesting angle would be to play with AD. He would still bring good players and assets. Lets say a team like Atlanta would likely be interested to give up players like Collins and Hunter (plus some of the guys on rookie contracts) for him. Just a quick example, there are probably more interesting teams looking to consolidate several lesser talents for AD.