{"id":665548,"date":"2026-05-12T07:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665548\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T07:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:31:13","slug":"examining-lakers-salary-cap-decisions-for-2026-nba-free-agency-after-loss-to-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665548\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining Lakers&#8217; Salary Cap, Decisions for 2026 NBA Free Agency after Loss to Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The double-edged sword of having so many free agents\u2014LeBron, presumably Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard, among others\u2014is that LA needs to fill a bunch of roster spots yet also has plenty of space to maneuver.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If LeBron wants to stay, he will. If he doesn&#8217;t, he won&#8217;t. Simple, but true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">From there, the Lakers&#8217; top priority will be re-signing Reaves and then either building depth behind a Doncic\/Reaves core or Doncic\/Reaves\/James trio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Hachimura is a quality fit as a stretch forward, although Los Angeles may instead prioritize a more traditional wing. Back in February, ESPN&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/47949695\/why-los-angeles-lakers-quiet-nba-trade-deadline-explosive-offseason-lebron-james-luka-doncic-giannis-antetkounmpo\">Dave McMenamin<\/a> shared the Lakers were already discussing Tari Eason, Quentin Grimes, Tobias Harris, Dean Wade, Peyton Watson and Andrew Wiggins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If the Lakers want to seriously bolster the frontcourt, they could make a run at a restricted free agent like Jalen Duren or Walker Kessler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The dominoes can start falling once LA settles LeBron&#8217;s and Reaves&#8217; futures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The double-edged sword of having so many free agents\u2014LeBron, presumably Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Luke Kennard, among others\u2014is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-665548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665548","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=665548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}