Lakers Need to Stop Being Paranoid About Cap Space and Sign KCP for Multiple Years

If KCP gets the 17-18M remaining in Lakers cap room, it's not a bad idea to give him multiple years. His defense and shooting will carry value in the league (see Tim Hardaway Jr.) and the Lakers could move him to clear space if need be. Obviously, there will be a huge undercurrent of griping from fans that think we cannot sacrifice that cap space whatsoever (despite having an entire year to maneuver), but this is an absurd strategy to take. It's exactly a repeat of the Buss-Kupchak era, and Paul George himself just stated that "it would be dumb to leave" if they made the Conference Finals.

The aforementioned fans were willing to give give up one of the only 3 valuable assets the entire franchise had -Brandon Ingram, Russell, and the #2 pick, just to avoid any potential difficulties of having cap space for a 2nd max guy.

And given the Lakers could plausibly dump Randle and Clarkson to clear that room anyways, it's a more baffling line to take. These fans basically (and the front office) have devalued Russell, Randle, and Clarkson so badly due to paranoia that they would be immovable in a year, and similarly would devalue KCP if they advocated maintaining room instead of signing him.

And, avoiding offering KCP multiple years for these very same reasons, is another paranoid line to take. He's under Lebron's umbrella (Rich Paul connection) and will be even more movable next year, given that teams don't have money to outright sign players. They can take an expiring at the deadline for him, worst case scenario (Tim Hardaway Jr just got the exact same deal basically).