L.A. Times: So where will the Lakers turn to now that they have pulled the deals they offered to Lamar Odom off the table?
The pickings left on the free-agent heap are slim, and were made even more difficult for the Lakers because they have exhausted their best spending tools.
They used the mid-level exception of $5.8 million on Ron Artest and the “bi-annual exception” of $1.99 million on Shannon Brown. All they have left at their disposal to sign a player is the veteran’s minimum annual salary because they are over the salary cap.
The veteran’s minimum is a sliding scale, starting at $457,588 for a rookie and going up to as much as $1.306 million for a veteran with 10 or more years of experience.
Then the issue becomes whether an unrestricted free agent will take less money from the Lakers because they are the NBA champions who have a chance to repeat and they play in Los Angeles.
The Lakers could do a sign-and-trade for Odom, or trade another player to get a quality player.
Continue reading ‘After Lamar Odom, the Lakers’ options aren’t pretty’
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