Harrison Barnes (Photo : Ezra Shaw | Getty Images Sport)
The LA Lakers have high hopes to make a splash in free agency and the main reason is their unprecedented cap space.
However, the cap space situation holds for 24 teams in the NBA and even while the max salary that the Lakers can offer a free agent is the same, there are still provisions in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBS) that favor the home team.
For the Lakers hotly rumored targets, one of them already shot down the Lakers buzz quite definitively: DeMar DeRozan. In a previous report, the Raptors guard has clearly stated that he wants to stay in Toronto. They still have to work out a deal and he may end up with the Lakers if they don't, but it's not "very clear" that he has "packed his bags" the way Stephen A. Smith alleged.
The Lakers saying that "they were not that high" on DeRozan and team site Silver Screen and Roll thinks it's better that way.
"The Lakers can use the money they would have had to give DeRozan to try and address larger areas of need like the center position while continuing their rebuild, and DeRozan can return to a team that just made a surprising run," Harrison Faigen of SSR stated.
Meanwhile, for Harrison Barnes, the notion is that the Lakers will offer a max contract and while the Golden State Warriors have the right to match as Barnes is restricted, the hope is that they would not.
A series of Tweets by Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders disputed that as a misconception.
Kyler notes that the Warriors have no cap space and they only have the Bird rights to their own free agents. If they don't match Barnes, they would not be able to use the money to sign other free agents. Also, maxing out Barnes will not affect their ability to max out Steph Curry next year (because the Warriors hold the Bird rights).
Sure, it will cost the Warriors ownership heavily, maybe even pushing them to luxury tax territory, but any owner worth his salt would not mind spending to keep a 73-win team, especially if they could be two-time defending champions.
There is only one reason why the Warriors would let Barnes go and renounce their free agents (gutting their roster in the process) and that one reason is Kevin Durant.
In other words, the only way for the Lakers to pry away players from their home teams is if the team does not have the Bird Rights to make an offer to a team.
That's the situation for Hassan Whiteside and Bismack Biyombo. Biyombo is estimated to get around $15 million and Whiteside's max is $22 million. The Lakers could get one of them to address their center issues. Kyler singled out Whiteside:
I think they make a run at him, but its up to him. He's the most obtainable guy in the market. https://t.co/FXTGwJTN9D
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) May 29, 2016
However, they are likely to use their 2nd overall pick to address their small forward position with either Brandon Ingram or Ben Simmons (though he's more of a four).
