A 10 Step Ideal Front Office Plan for the Lakers this season:Step 8

Ideal Lakers 2017 2018 Front Office Plan: Step Eight

After following the first seven steps of my plan, each detailed in previous posts, the Lakers now have a roster of nine players. In the starting lineup are LeBron James, Paul George, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Lonzo Ball, backed up by Brandon Ingram, Larry Nance, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart and a 2nd round pick all coming off the bench. Under my plan, these salaries all total about $92 million in 2018, giving the Lakers about $10 million to play with. Factoring minimum holds, the Lakers could realistically offer one player a contract starting at about $7 million total, while eating up one more roster spot and cap hold. So here is my recommendation, and the third to last cog in my plan.

Step Eight: Resigning Brooke Lopez

While there are scenarios where keeping KCP takes a bit more and this negotiation with Lopez gets rather difficult, in my ideal yet reasonable plan they have about $7 million to offer the veteran center. Since the Lakers traded for Brook and have his full Bird Rights, they can also offer him a five year deal and max raises if need be to get this deal done, as long as they sign him first to kill his huge cap hold. (The same goes for Pope, who also has a huge cap hold)

Given the weak market for centers lately and Lopez's age next summer (30), he is most likely looking at offers just above this from capped out teams who have the full midlevel. Maybe one or two depleted teams with space goes as high as $10 or even $12 million a year, but it's hard to imagine one of those bigger offers coming from a rebuilding team who would want a 30 year old center, no matter how skilled. Therefore, I think this starting salary will be just enough, given the length, the environment, and the enticing prospect of starting at center on a really, really good team for years to come.

(As a side note: Brook seems like the kind of guy whose new teammates could lock in a room and pelt with pillows, all while he laughs uncontrollably, until he finally says something like "ah shucks fella's, I'll sign for anything to stay on this squad")

Since this salary seems close to his market, and this is my ideal plan, we assume it gets done. Is that it? What next? Well, counting three minimum cap holds, the Lakers really only have their room exemption to add one more aging stud to the bench. Fortunately, the perfect guy will be available, maybe even at this price.

To see what I believe is doable with the room exemption, once again with some recruiting by LeBron, read my next to last step in this series. Step Nine: Signing Dwyane Wade.

To let me know what you think of my plan so far, you can tweet me @plain_fiction, or email me directly at plainfiction@gmail.com.

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