Max Christie, Lakers agree to 4-year, $32 million deal
The Lakers have reportedly retained young wing Max Christie, who entered the offseason as a restricted free agent.
Max Christie is one of the promising youngsters on the Lakers roster and it looks like he’ll be remaining in Los Angeles for the foreseeable future. The Lakers will reportedly be bringing back Christie on a four-year, $32 million deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Christie’s agent Kevin Bradbury of @LiftSportsmngmt and Lakers GM Rob Pelinka negotiated a deal that keeps Christie out of restricted free agency. Christie has been a developmental success story for the Lakers. https://t.co/Teup2i5mPk
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2024
The four-year deal may be a bit surprising in its length, but it is a good surprise for Lakers fans. Even if it’s a three-year deal with a player option for a fourth season, locking in a player like Christie for multiple seasons at under $10 million annually has the potential to be a terrific contract.
Not even allowing Christie to enter free agency is also a sign of how much this team values Christie. And perhaps a sign of confidence that the front office has deals lined up to help keep them under the second apron and to open up roster spaces.
On the surface, Christie had a year not worth highlighting, averaging 4.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes of play in his 61 games during the 2023-24 season.
However, given that the Lakers viewed him as part of the young core during their coaching search, they clearly had interest in retaining him this offseason. To go even further, reports leading up to free agency were that the team saw him as a rotation player next year,
Regardless of how much he didn’t play last year, the Lakers see him as part of this team’s future. Even as he’s set to enter his third season, Christie is just 21 years old with a lot of room to still grow.
Quality wings are hard to come by and with Christie returning on a modest deal, the Lakers can find out what his ceiling is in Los Angeles.
The Lakers have been very busy this off-season with a couple of draft selections, players opting in and now, with Christie re-signing, the team has a serious roster crunch issue.
While bringing back players like Christie is a net positive for the organization, they’ll have to get creative, find ways to execute trades and sign a quality player with the mid-level exemption if they want to improve and not just run it back with last year’s team.
This live story will be updated.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.