The Lakers Are Gearing Up For 2023 Free Agency, But Is That Enough?

According to Sam Amick and Jovan Buha over at The Athletic, the Los Angeles Lakers are gearing up for 2023 free agency, having seemingly decided to not fork over crucial draft capital to relive themselves of Russell Westbrook.

While the overall plan, seen from the long-term linse, is the right approach to team construction, banking on free agency in an NBA market where more and more players sign extension as opposed to testing their own market, appears limiting.

The original premise of free agency is having a deep pool of players finally freed from their contractual obligations, but in recent years star players have mostly opted for contract extension, and later forcing their way to a new team via trade, as opposed to signing outright with a team by their own accord.

Ironically, the Lakers themselves have proof of this practice with the presence of Anthony Davis on their roster, who forced himself out of New Orleans to join them.

For any team banking heavy on free agency, there must be the understanding that the route is dramatically less appealing in today’s NBA compared to just five years ago.

The Kyrie Irving plan

LeBron James’ former teammate, Kyrie Irving, is indeed scheduled to become a free agent next year, and is reportedly on the Lakers’ radar. The All-Star was rumored to the Lakers for months during the offseason before committing to the Brooklyn Nets for the final year of his contract.

Irving, who has seen his market value lessen dramatically in recent years, recently shared conspiracy theories from the controversial right-wing pundit Alex Jones via social media, which didn’t help restore his reputation amongst NBA fans.

It’s fair to wonder if Irving can even command the lofty salary his on-court production indicates due to the questions surrounding him off the court. The Lakers, should they offer Irving the full extent of their available cap space – believed to be into the area of $30-35 million – could be a miscalculation on their part, especially if no other suiters identify themselves.

Furthermore, it’s equally fair to wonder if signing Irving in 2023 is replacing one problem with another. While Irving is unquestionably the better player between himself and Westbrook, he comes with baggage. The media attention alone would cause a major season-long distraction, and there are no guarantees that Irving and James would keep the hatchet buried. Things crumbled in Cleveland for a reason.

Lack of alternatives

By far the bigger problem is the aforementioned change in behavior of stars, when it comes to signing extensions.

If the Lakers are banking on cap space to solve most of their concerns, and the market in a year turns out to be dry, that forces them into a situation where they will need to consider the possibility of relinquishing draft capital to acquire contracted players into their available cap space, thus losing assets in the process.

Granted, the Lakers are still the Lakers. They play in arguably the most attractive market in the NBA, and they somehow fall backwards into stars without doing much of anything. Case in point their two current stars in James and Davis. In 2018, while going nowhere, James himself decided the Lakers was the place for him, and Davis – as mentioned above – forced his way out of New Orleans, specifically targeting Los Angeles.

The overwhelming question right now is: Do the Lakers still have similar appeal given that James is nearing 38 years old, and Davis has proven incapable being healthy for longer stretches?

The Lakers’ free agency plans heavily rely on the answer to that question. If they misread the market, and key players turn them down, they’d be better off trying to make their own luck instead of playing the free agency game, and relying on the assumption that they have same appeal as a few years ago.

At least with teams such as Oklahoma City and Utah, they’re proactively getting out ahead of a situation by loading up on draft picks. Or, in the case of Cleveland, they showcased a keen sense of timing in executing the trade for Donovan Mitchell.

The Lakers obviously do not have the same amount of assets to pull something like that off, but even so, they routinely fall back on their name to help them get out of bad times. At some point – maybe soon – that strategy won’t be enough. Especially in a league where cap manipulation and inventiveness is the path forward to success.

It might be time for the Lakers to plan for more than just free agency.

Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.