🚨 Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason plans after LeBron James OPTS IN | NBA on ESPN

🚨 Los Angeles Lakers’ offseason plans after LeBron James OPTS IN | NBA on ESPN

all right a happy Sunday uh morning if you’re in LA or afternoon if you’re on the East Coast Hopefully everyone is uh doing great Uh June 29th the um I’m just responding to my text Uh June 29th the deadline for players to opt in or opt out of their contract Um 5:00 PM Eastern time We still have a bunch of players still waiting Uh I figured we would do a a video I’ve been on Sports Center all morning talking Lakers Uh I would say they are in the news today Um and we will do a Lakers video as far as just kind of I know we’ve been putting out the graphics and people are like where can we find those graphics it’s just in my computer on Canva Um there’s no place that you can go have access to it Um and we put out graphics and we showed you kind of the different options I think it’s um Julius Randall Um I think it’s important to kind of walk this through like a stepbystep process And it’s it’s probably important to look at this roster where they are right now and then we’re going to go in each each of the different news that Shams broke along this morning Okay When we woke up this morning on this beautiful Sunday afternoon the Lakers had Dorian Finny Smith under contract He had a player option Um okay Julius Randall uh Dorian Finny Smith under contract had a player option LeBron James with his uh player option here I’m just going to pull up the Lakers off season and they had the um the 5.7 tax mid-level exception available Okay that was their big signing tool as far as what they had available to go use in free agency Right we’ve been talking about they need a center center That was their big signing tool They also had $60 million in in expiring contracts that include Dorian Finny Smith when you look at Ruie Hachamora and you look at Gabe Vincent and you look at Maxi Cleber Um we’re not including Austin Reeves in that conversation here Um because I wouldn’t say a player is not tradable but the likelihood is that he’s off the market unless there’s something that makes sense Okay so that was kind of your Lakers We woke up this morning well 4:00 a.m Pacific time um Lakers roster in a nutshell Okay Then we had at around 8:00 am Pacific time we had Shams go on Sports Center I backed him up 15 minutes later and announced that LeBron James was opting in right we all knew this This is what we knew he was going to opt in Uh if he had opted out he could have signed a new deal Uh he opts in The no trade clause comes into effect And in doing so he reads a statement from Rich Paul his longtime agent well respected Um and it says I will read this to you if if any of you um let me find the statement Oh sorry All right So this is what the statement was LeBron wants to compete for a championship He knows the Lakers are building for the future right they went out and acquired Luca He understands that but he values a realistic chance of w winning it all We are very appreciative of the partnership that we’ve had for seven years and consider the Lakers as a critical part of his career Won a championship has been there seven years I think his first year might have been my first year with ESPN Okay another no different story However there’s always a butt to everything However we do want to evaluate what’s best for LeBron at this stage in his life and career He wants to make every season he has left count and the Lakers understand that are supportive and want what’s best for him So I didn’t I don’t have a PhD degree Uh I’m not a psychologist Um I think you can try to interpret that every different way It’s like kind of like hedging your bet What do you want do you want do you want to be back with the Lakers yes Do you want this roster to improve yes What happens if it doesn’t improve what are you what are your options going to do in a perfect world like if I was John Smith off the street and I didn’t think my roster can can improve and I probably already had a billion dollars in the bank I would have probably just declined the option and gone into free agency and go sign with Cleveland for the veteran minimum or San Antonio for the veteran minimum I’m just hypothetically like that would probably be the most sensible as far as decline the option and enter free agency and go sign somewhere for the veteran minimum exception Uh he did not do that He opted into his contract which he has the right to do Um and he has the right to earn listen if we didn’t have a salary cap LeBron James would probably be worth a hund00 million So he opts into the contract and the statement comes out and now we are left wondering what is going to be next for the Los Angeles Lakers if there are marginal uh uh changes to this roster Um the Lakers and I said this this morning on Sports Center the Lakers are operating basically on kind of two timelines When you look at LeBron who’s got a year left on his contract then you have Luca who’s remember extension eligible four for 229 August 2nd Don’t lose sight of that trying to build an ad around Luca Um it’s it’s an unenviable position for Rob Pelinka their general manager Um but this is the position they are in right now when you look at it from a trade perspect Okay All right Let’s go back then Then about 20 minutes later Sham is announces that Dorian Finny Smith is opting out of his 154 15.4 million player option Okay So what does that mean that means if Finny Smith goes somewhere else and signs somewhere else your non-ax mid-level exception now increases to $14 million That’s your non- tax Okay if you use more than 5.7 the hard first apron um hard cap gets triggered Kevin Pelton and I were texting Kevin is labeling it the lower uh lower um tax uh ex or lower tax I don’t know Kevin had some great word that I liked Um as far as you not using the apron anymore Um so they they now have the $14.1 million if this Finny Smith does not resign $14.1 million non-t tax middle-le exception The $5.1 million B by annual exception Using the bianual exception triggers the first apron Using the four more than 5.7 of the non-tax triggers the first apron Let’s say Dorian Finny Smith does not return You are $19 million below the first apron Okay So if we do a little bit of a math lesson right now if you apply 14 to that if it’s for a center or what 10 for that whatever the the left is is that’s where your flexibility to go out and add whatever is left You are hardcapped You are hardcaped like the Dallas Mavericks were last year at the first apron You are hardcapped like the Golden State Warriors were last year at the first apron Right that is what happens when you look at from a free agent perspective Listen there’s uh you’re not getting Miles Turner Um there there’s guys like Brook Lopez Clint Capel that kind of you Luke Cornet I would probably take a flyer on I mean I think his number is around six seven million That’s your free agent market Now we look at the trade market Let’s take Finny Smith off the table Now you got about $45 million in expiring contracts You’ve got that first round pick in 31 or 32 You have swap rights in five out of seven years You have Dalton Connect Poor poor Daltton Connect kind of on an island by himself as far as what you have available from a tradable standpoint I am not going to come on and and do LeBron James trades where he can go but there is going to be speculation as it should based off that statement And if the Lakers make marginal trades I just said we’re not gonna do LeBron James but I’m probably gonna start talking about it It is important because I know his former team the Cavaliers are going to be linked somehow if we ever get to that point How the Cavaliers are structured right now They are buried in the apron They are not allowed to aggregate contracts Can’t combine Darius Garland and Max Strus Under the old CBA you could They are not allowed to take back more money in a deal So how they would go out and do that if this ever came about and I’m not saying it is becomes extremely difficult for apron teams It’s basically a process of elimination when you go down but line by line if we ever get to this point as far as with LeBron So that is a a little bit of a skinny on the off season and with the Lakers Listen them and Milwaukee are on the clock man like I I I don’t want I don’t want to like you know go drama on everyone but they are certainly on the clock as far as what is going to happen over the next few days here The free agency show that we had on or have on Monday and Tuesday all of a sudden became a little bit more spicier No offense to Tai Jerome and Kil Alexander Walker but now we’ve got a bigger story to talk about So that is it regarding the Lakers Um listen if you think Rob Pelinka right now is sitting on the beach drinking pinina coladas like everyone is mistaken here You have to go out and and basically oh boy I don’t know Um you have to go out and improve your roster And Rob knows this and John Horse knows this but when you’re working within these rules and there’s 450 players it it becomes a little bit more challenging here So I am interested to see what happens with the Lakers We will do more videos soon that we have a bunch of articles up We will talk soon [Music] [Applause] me with the heat I’m on fire [Applause]

Bobby Marks breaks down what the Lakers face heading into the free agency after LeBron James opted into his $52.6M player option for the 2025-26 season and Dorian Finney-Smith opted out.
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