Less than 24 hours into NBA free agency, the Lakers executed on their stated plan to roll back last season’s core with minor improvements, cementing themselves as one of the big early winners of the offseason.
Los Angeles provided continuity for the next season, completing its roster on day two of free agency by agreeing to take the starting roster of Austin Reaves (four years, about $56 million with a fourth year player option) and Retaining D’Angelo Russell (two years, $37 million with a sophomore player option), while adding a backup center at Jaxson Hayes for at least two years of veteran, with a sophomore player option. Those moves came a day after the Lakers agreed to a settlement involving Gabe Vincent, Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish while keeping Rui Hachimura.
Reaves, Russell and Hachimura were the organization’s three priorities to keep. Given how the free agency market has evolved, Los Angeles has called the shots for every free agent, which is reflected in the value of the individual contracts they’ve agreed to.
By far the biggest move was the retention of Reaves, bringing the roster up to 13 players. The Lakers managed to scare off the rest of the restricted free agent market, led by the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets. No cap-ranked team was willing to offer Reaves a four-year-max contract for about $102 million when the Lakers were going to compete anyway.
Instead, the Lakers Reaves will pay nearly half that price over the course of the four years. The first two seasons of Reaves’ contract would have been the same dollar amount regardless of the contract he signed, but the last two would have been pushed back if the Lakers were forced to take another team’s top bid, which turned out to be the case would have impacted the way The Lakers assembled their roster in 2025–26 and 2026–27. The trade-off is that Reaves will be given a player option in year four and will be able to move to free agency in 2026 when he will be 28 years old.
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Had Reaves been an unrestricted free agent, he likely would have agreed to a deal well over $100 million this offseason. The 6-foot-1 guard just turned 25 and was the third-best player on a team to make the Western Conference Finals. In the final 10 games of the regular season, when Reaves became a full-time starter, he averaged 18.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game while playing 57.1 percent from the field, 48.6 percent off 3 and 89.8 percent shot from open field. throw line.
Reaves continued his stellar play into the playoffs, averaging 16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists at 46.4 percent from the field and 44.3 of 3 as a starter in the Lakers’ 16 games. The only ones Players who achieved those stats last postseason were Nikola Jokić, Devin Booker and Kawhi Leonard (although Leonard only played in two postseason games). Team USA identified Reaves as a young player on the rise and invited him to play on their roster for the FIBA World Championship this summer.
According to team sources not authorized to speak publicly, the Lakers plan to run more of their offense through Reaves next season, unlocking the point guard skills he developed in his first two years in the league has proven.
D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves are both returning to the Lakers. (Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / USA Today)
The Lakers also secured Russell, their prospective starting point guard, at a fair price after he helped them reach the Western Conference Finals but struggled there. The 27-year-old was one of the top unrestricted free agents guards in free agency as the former All-Star boasts an elite combination of 3-point shooting (41.1 percent in the regular season since his Move to the Lakers in February). and playmaking (6.1 assists per game in the regular season for Los Angeles).
He was a better player and fitter than Russell Westbrook, the player he essentially replaced. But the market for Russell was cold. His post-season problems and defensive limitations make him difficult as a top option for a team with title ambitions. Russell’s numbers fell dramatically in the 2023 playoffs, from his points (17.4 to 13.3) through his assists (6.1 to 4.6) and his field goal percentage to 3-point percentage (41, 4 to 31.0). He had a particularly tough time against the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, where he averaged 6.8 points on a 32.2 percent shot percentage while losing his seed spot by the fourth game. Teams value a player’s performance as they advance through the playoffs. This was especially true against Russell as a free agent.
As other teams filled their gaps as point guards, including the Lakers with former heat guard Gabe Vincent and the Raptors with Russell’s former teammate Dennis Schröder, a last-minute return to Los Angeles became the only logical option. This is a temporary marriage of convenience for both parties. The Lakers can switch Russell during the 2023-24 season, and Russell has been given the option to opt out and sign somewhere else next summer. (One wrinkle: Russell has the right to veto any trade, but as Nate Duncan from the Dunc’d On Basketball NBA Podcast noted on TwitterThe new CBA allows teams and players to negotiate the possibility of waiving this right as part of contract negotiations. It remains unclear if the Lakers and Russell did so with this contract.)
In their second low-stakes gamble of the offseason (the other being Reddish), the Lakers signed 23-year-old formerly of the New Orleans Pelicans Hayes. With Hayes (the No. 8 pick in 2019), Hachimura (the No. 9 pick) and Reddish (the No. 10 pick) on the roster, the Lakers have the entire middle of the 2019 NBA draft lottery.
The 1.90 meter tall Hayes is a high flyer who is an excellent edge walker, lob finisher and shot blocker. Over the course of his career, he has achieved a 75.2 percent hit rate from one meter to the rim, a top performance. There are questions about his concentration and awareness. He is still developing as a shooter and has posted a 3-point range in the previous two seasons. He can make game-changing moves on defense, but is also prone to foul problems. It’s still unclear if he’s better as a power forward or center; In fact, he scored his best basketball of the 2021-22 season when he played as a power forward alongside Jonas Valančiūnas.
If the Lakers plan to use Hayes as their primary backup center and backup starter in the event Anthony Davis is injured, they’re taking a moderate risk. Hayes has enjoyed a season in which he played the fewest minutes (13.0 per game) and games (47) of his four-year career after being replaced by Larry Nance Jr. with the Pelicans. Last year, Hayes was sentenced to 450 hours of community service, 52 weeks of domestic violence classes and three years probation after pleading no contest to two misdemeanor charges that followed an incident with his girlfriend in Woodland Hills, California in July 2021 had .
This is how the depth table of the Lakers currently looks with their total of 13 players.
Current depth map of the Lakers
Appetizers | Bank | Bank | |
|---|---|---|---|
PG | D’Angelo Russell | Gabe Vincent | Jalen Hood-Schifino |
SG | Austin Reaves | Max Christie | Maxwell Lewis |
SF | Lebron James | Taurian prince | Cam Reddish |
PF | Rui Hachimura | Jared Vanderbilt | |
C | Anthony Davis | Jason Hayes |
The planned lineups are fluid. Russell is the first favorite to start as a point guard but Vincent could secure the spot if he tops him in training camp, team sources told The Athletic. After investing heavily in Hachimura this summer, the Lakers expect him to pick up where he left off in the postseason and remain a regular season regular despite his stint on the bench. The Lakers also have ample positional flexibility: Jarred Vanderbilt, Prince, Max Christie, and Reddish are each capable of playing at least two positions. Sometimes we even see Hayes and Davis play together.
Depending on exact salaries for the first year of their new contracts, the Lakers’ payroll will be around $165 million guaranteed with 13 players. That means they’re about $7 million below the first run’s hard cap line of $172 million and have two roster spots available. The Lakers could still offer Malik Beasley or Lonnie Walker IV more than a minimum contract, but it’s unclear where either would fit into the rotation, with Reaves, Russell, Vincent, Prince and Christie already collecting minutes at the three outposts ( not to mention). by James, who essentially has no position, or newcomers Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis).
According to team sources, LA has another big man in its sights with his 14th roster spot. They will likely have 14 guaranteed contracts in the season, leaving one spot open in the squad. According to league sources, Mo Bamba, who the Lakers waived Thursday, and Tristan Thompson, who joined the team just before the playoffs, remain options to fill 14th. The big player market has been dry so far this free agency period, so the Lakers might as well wait and see if there are better options.
James came the closest to making his first public comments since hinting at his retirement following the Lakers’ Game 4 loss to Denver by acknowledging every deal the Lakers made in his Instagram Story. The Lakers continue to act like he will return next season.
Provided the Lakers sign another reliable big player, their offseason will end on a resounding note. Their decision-making process was characterized by a sober stability that contrasted with some of the glaring mistakes they’d made during previous season breaks as they pursued stars and standout roleplayers with pedigree.
They didn’t sacrifice their supporting cast to pursue Kyrie Irving or Fred VanVleet like they did in 2021 when they switched for Westbrook. Instead, they kept their two most promising younger players in the playoffs (Reaves and Hachimura), added two snipers who offer above-average defense (Vincent and Prince) to a rotation that needed these types of roleplayers, and performed two low-risk swings over Length and athleticism with top 10 picks Hayes and Reddish. The decision to keep Russell on a short-term contract was a tougher decision given the legitimate questions about his playoff viability and his role on a competing team, but he’s at least a solid regular-season contributor coming around the trade deadline of A pseudo-expiring contract should be worth it.
Among the contenders, the Lakers are one of the few teams to have meaningfully expanded their roster since free agency began. (Of course, that could change in an instant depending on where Damian Lillard and James Harden end up.) The Phoenix Suns added Bradley Beal to form one of the league’s best trios and secured a number of their signings, but could count on Chris renounce Paul. The Golden State Warriors need to integrate Paul into their style of play. The Denver Nuggets remain the clear favorites in both the West and the NBA, but suffered a setback with the loss of Bruce Brown. The LA Clippers are looming as the next super team if they pull off a Harden mega trade, but they haven’t done so yet. The Boston Celtics are the most talented team in the league on paper, but the loss of Marcus Smart is imminent. The Milwaukee Bucks retained Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, extending their championship core window, but they have yet to add a significant player. The Miami Heat, fresh out of the NBA Finals, are the overwhelming favorites to sign Lillard but have lost key players in Vincent and Max Strus.
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The Lakers have improved, if only slightly, in the mix. They used the resources at their disposal as best they could and maintained the core ingredients of a conference finalist who finished 19-8 in the last 27 games of the regular season, including the play-in win over Minnesota. This group should only get better if head coach Darvin Ham and his staff have a summer to prepare for the new group and complete a full training camp.
With multiple paths ahead of them, the Lakers chose the wisest path: Keep their best free agents and make meaningful upgrades that give them a shot at the No. 18 next season.
(Top Photo: Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)