{"id":736362,"date":"2026-07-01T06:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736362\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T06:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T06:22:14","slug":"what-lebron-james-departure-means-for-the-lakers-free-agent-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736362\/","title":{"rendered":"What LeBron James\u2019 departure means for the Lakers\u2019 free-agent plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

After eight years, LeBron James\u2019 time with the Los Angeles Lakers is officially over<\/a>. He informed the Lakers on Tuesday that he\u2019ll be moving on and signing with another team once he becomes a free agent.<\/p>\n

That means the Lakers\u2019 cap-space plan is now full steam ahead.<\/p>\n

Barring a last-second change of heart, James\u2019 departure will wipe his $57.75 million cap hold off their books, freeing the Lakers up to open as much as $52 million in cap space. Granted, getting to that number would require them to renounce their rights to Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and the rest of their free agents. That doesn\u2019t seem likely, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Still, James was the first domino that needed to fall<\/a> for the Lakers this offseason. Now that they know that he isn\u2019t returning \u2014 and didn\u2019t have to wait until August to find out<\/a> \u2014 they can proceed accordingly with the rest of their free-agency plans.<\/p>\n

PlayerSalaryLuka Doncic$49,500,000Austin Reaves$20,906,361Jarred Vanderbilt$12,428,571Deandre Ayton$8,104,000Jake LaRavia$6,000,000Dalton Knecht$4,201,080Cameron Carr$3,316,200Bronny James$2,296,271Adou Thiero$2,150,917Incomplete roster charges (x3)$4,085,907TOTAL$112,989,307SALARY CAP$164,961,000CAP ROOM$51,971,693LUXURY TAX$200,428,000TAX ROOM$87,438,6931ST APRON$209,015,0001ST APRON ROOM$96,025,6932ND APRON$221,686,0002ND APRON ROOM$108,696,693<\/p>\n

In mid-June, Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported<\/a> that Luka Don\u010di\u0107 had been in \u201cconstant communication\u201d with the Lakers and made \u201cone roster preference clear\u201d to them: an \u201cA-list center.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren and Utah Jazz center Walker Kessler both appear to be on the Lakers\u2019 radar. And both may actually be gettable.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Sam Amick of The Athletic reported<\/a> that Duren has a call with the Lakers scheduled once free agency officially begins. Amick and others have reported that there\u2019s a wide gulf in negotiations between Duren and the Pistons and that he\u2019s open to explore sign-and-trade possibilities.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento Kings are preparing to offer Domantas Sabonis in exchange for Duren, according to Amick<\/a>, although McMenamin reported<\/a> that Detroit \u201cthus far is uninterested in pursuing a sign-and-trade\u201d with Duren. Would the Pistons change that stance if the Lakers were a real threat to sign Duren outright, leaving them empty-handed?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kessler is planning to meet with three teams on Tuesday, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line<\/a>, and the Lakers are \u201cstrongly believed to be one of those three teams.\u201d Tim MacMahon of ESPN reported<\/a> in mid-June that the Jazz offered Kessler a five-year deal worth roughly $140 million, but Kessler wanted more.<\/p>\n

If the salary cap lands at exactly $165 million<\/a>, the Lakers can offer either Duren or Kessler a four-year, $177.4 million max contract beginning at $41.25 million. That would wipe out most of their cap space \u2014 and likely cost them a shot at re-signing Hachimura \u2014 but they still could have upward of $10 million in spending power, plus the $9.4 million room mid-level exception.<\/p>\n

James\u2019 departure does free up the Lakers to seriously pursue Duren, Kessler or any other up-and-coming big man on the free-agent market. However, they\u2019ll need to be mindful of how those players fit into their larger cap-space puzzle.<\/p>\n

Why July 6 matters for the Lakers<\/p>\n

While free agents can agree to contracts with new teams as early as 6 p.m. ET Tuesday, few of those deals will become official until after the moratorium lifts on July 6. Restricted free agents can\u2019t even officially sign offer sheets until then.<\/p>\n

Having a few days to work out the finances of their moves could benefit the Lakers. Once they find out how much it\u2019d cost them to land Duren, Kessler or another big man (whether via free agency or trade), they\u2019d have some time to figure out the sequence of their ensuing moves.<\/p>\n

For instance, Hachimura has a $27.4 million cap hold. If the Lakers plan to bring him back, they\u2019ll likely need to officially sign him to his new deal first \u2014 which figures to start below that number \u2014 before doing anything else.<\/p>\n

Even though Austin Reaves has already agreed to a four-year, $185 million max contract, he\u2019ll be the last official move<\/a> that the Lakers make. Until they officially sign him to that deal, he\u2019ll be on their books for his $20.9 million cap hold instead of his new $41.25 million salary, which is what enables them to open $50-plus million in cap space this offseason.<\/p>\n

The Lakers also don\u2019t have to renounce their rights to LeBron right when free agency begins. In fact, they shouldn\u2019t. If he\u2019s interested in rejoining the Cleveland Cavaliers, a sign-and-trade involving Jarrett Allen might be their only way<\/a> to outbid the Golden State Warriors or other interested suitors.<\/p>\n

In that scenario, the Lakers would keep LeBron\u2019s cap hold on their books, and the sign-and-trade to Cleveland would likely be their first official move. Even after swapping LeBron for Allen, they could still have $25.4 million in spending power, although again, that would require them to renounce the rights to all of their other free agents.<\/p>\n

Because of the cap-hold trick with Reaves\u2019 new contract, order of operations was always going to be the key to the Lakers\u2019 offseason. They needed to deal with James\u2019 massive cap hold first and Reaves\u2019 cap hold last, but what they do between those two moves remains a mystery for now.<\/p>\n

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com<\/a>, PBPStats<\/a>, Cleaning the Glass<\/a> or Basketball Reference<\/a>. All salary information via Spotrac<\/a> and salary-cap information via RealGM<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After eight years, LeBron James\u2019 time with the Los Angeles Lakers is officially over. He informed the Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[103935,315490,349,99],"class_list":["post-736362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-lakers-analysis","tag-lakers-free-agency","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}