![\"Gabe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GettyImages-1731752489-e1697132480756.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Gabe Vincent #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> may need to waive either\u00a0Gabe Vincent<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Maxi Kleber<\/a> to sign Nikola Vucevic<\/a>, who could reportedly be a free agent soon.<\/p>\n Unlike other contenders, the Lakers can offer Vucevic only a veteran minimum deal and would need to waive Vincent or Kleber, per Trevor Lane of LakersNation.<\/a><\/p>\n While answering fan questions on his podcast on July 28, Lane explained how the Lakers could land Vuc.<\/p>\n \u201cOne option could be to waive and stretch the salary of Gabe Vincent or Maxi Kleber. You can do that with either guy,\u201d he said. \u201cSo the question becomes: would that be the preferred path rather than give up that second-round pick, have $3.6 million in dead money sitting on your books?\u201d<\/p>\n As Lane alluded to, the other option would be to package Vincent and Kleber\u2019s expiring contracts<\/a>, along with a second-round pick, to land Vucevic via trade.<\/p>\n Lakers Feasting in Buyout Market<\/p>\n The Lakers have benefited the most from the buyout market this offseason, with their acquisitions of Deandre Ayton<\/a> and Marcus Smart<\/a>.<\/p>\n While they signed Ayton to a two-year, $16.6 million deal, they inked Smart, the former Defensive Player of the Year, to a two-year, $11 million contract. Both contracts were viewed as feasible only because the duo received buyouts from their former teams.<\/p>\n The Lakers were forced to waive<\/a> Jordan Goodwin and Shake Milton to sign Smart.<\/p>\n According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Luka Doncic played a critical role in recruiting both Smart and Ayton.<\/p>\n \u201cLuka Don\u010di\u0107 is not contract extension-eligible until Aug. 2, but his first summer as a Laker has already been a busy one,\u201d Stein wrote.<\/a> \u201cSoon to begin his (whoa) eighth NBA season, Don\u010di\u0107 was a lead recruiter in the Lakers\u2019 pursuits of\u00a0Deandre Ayton\u00a0and\u00a0Marcus Smart\u00a0via the NBA\u2019s increasingly robust July buyout market.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m told that the recent Don\u010di\u0107 pitch, once Washington granted the 31-year-old and his agent Jason Glushon permission to talk to other teams in search of a post-buyout landing spot, particularly resonated with Smart and helped lead the former Defensive Player of the Year to choose the Lakers over a determined push by the Suns to land the former Celtic.\u201d<\/p>\n Will Doncic Recruit Vuc?<\/p>\n Stein wrote in his Substack that Doncic showed his commitment to the Lakers by recruiting both Smart and Ayton. Could he do the same with Vucevic?<\/p>\n \u201cExternal fretting about Don\u010di\u0107 committing his long-term future to the Lakers, meanwhile, has dissipated considerably thanks to the contributions made by the 26-year-old throughout free agency in collaboration with vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka,\u201d Stein wrote.<\/p>\n If and Vucevic hits free agency, he\u2019s expected to command interest from the Lakers, Golden State Warriors, and Boston Celtics, per multiple insiders. The Lakers and Warriors were also the most aggressive suitors<\/a> for the two-time All-Star ahead of the 2025 NBA trade deadline. Ultimately, the Bulls held onto Vuc as no team could match their asking price.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0NBA insider Jake Fischer,<\/a> the Chicago Bulls are expected to buy out Vucevic\u2019s expiring contract of $21 million<\/a> due to a lack of trade market for the big man.<\/p>\n \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been much of a market for Nikola Vucevic all along, dating back to last trade deadline,\u201d Fischer told Bleacher Report. \u201cI think at this juncture, we\u2019re probably more likely to see a Nikola Vucevic buyout midseason than we are to see a trade.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Gabe Vincent #7 of the Los Angeles Lakers. The\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers may need to waive either\u00a0Gabe Vincent\u00a0or\u00a0Maxi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-30590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}