Lakers among teams who will meet with Klay Thompson, Warriors open to sign-and-trade talks
The Lakers will reportedly be one of the teams Klay Thompson meets with to open free agency, but it sounds like he may be a sign-and-trade option and not an MLE one.
There will be no immediate Klay Thompson decision to kick off free agency, but the Lakers are still involved. Thompson’s time in Golden State is done and he’ll meet with a number of teams in free agency.
Among the teams he’ll meet to open free agency are the Lakers, Mavs, Clippers and Sixers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Klay Thompson plans to have discussions with the Mavericks, Lakers, Clippers and 76ers in the opening hours of free agency, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2024
More importantly, it looks like Thompson and the Warriors are open to working on a sign-and-trade deal, which opens up a lot more possibilities for Thompson to land. It also doesn’t require him to take quite the pay cut.
After 13 iconic seasons together, sources say Klay Thompson is departing the Warriors and the sides will begin to work through sign-and-trade options — discussing now on @Stadium Free Agency Special: https://t.co/UzzmWYSvJk
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2024
Seems like Klay Thompson will be a sign-and-trade player and not the MLE...hearing Dallas will be aggressive. Obviously, the Lakers have interest.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) June 30, 2024
This does not rule the Lakers out, obviously. They will still have the chance to make a trade with some of the mid-sized contracts like D’Angelo Russell, Rui Hachimura and others. And with those contracts, they could actually probably offer him as much as, or more, than anyone else.
But it doesn’t help them. Using those contracts to trade for Thompson means they can’t use them to upgrade elsewhere on the roster. Similarly, LeBron James was willing to take a pay cut for only certain players, Thompson among them.
Also, part of the allure of signing Klay for the MLE was that it would have been an incredible value contract. Signing him on a bigger deal takes away a lot of that value.
Lastly, if Klay isn’t an MLE signing, the Lakers don’t have some of the same avenues to sign him as other teams.
Mavericks have a $16.1M trade exception created from the Tim Hardaway Jr. trade.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) June 30, 2024
Lakers and Clippers would be $12.8M non-tax ML unless a sign/trade.
76ers could have $14M in room if Paul George signs with them. https://t.co/yMEkjHcltQ
It’s not a great development for the Lakers. Their best bet was that Klay willingly took the MLE, maybe out of pettiness against the Warriors, which made the Lakers a very appealing option.
The other thing that would have worked in the Lakers' favor is that Klay and the Warriors' relationship had deteriorated so much that they wouldn’t do a sign-and-trade together. Working together opens up every team in the NBA now, technically.
The Lakers are still in the thick of things, but there’s some strong competition for him.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.