LeBron James ended up accepting the discount, and now the Lakers are looking to reinforcements.
James’ pay cut was small, at $101.35 million over his two-year contract. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks:That’s about $3 million less than the maximum $104 million he would have been eligible to receive over two seasons and puts the Lakers $45,000 short of the second apron threshold.
Lakers reporter Jovan Buha reported to The Athletic: If teams can shed salary, they could potentially sign players under the taxpayer mid-level exception, which starts at about $5.2 million for the 2024-25 season.
and, According to BuhaThe team could target Gary Trent Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie, who was released by the Raptors in a trade with the Nets and finished the 2023-24 season with the Lakers.
Trent Jr., 25, averaged 13.7 points per game with Toronto last season and made 39 percent of his 6.4 3-point attempts per game.
Dinwiddie, 31, has appeared in 28 games with the Lakers, starting four of them and averaging 24.2 minutes per game.
He averaged 6.8 points and 2.4 assists per night while shooting 38.9 percent from three-point range.
In the playoffs, he averaged 3.0 points and 1.6 assists and his playing time dropped to 14.6 minutes per game in the team’s first round loss to the Nuggets in a five-game series.
