The Lakers will get a star in 2018, if they are smart.
The new Lakers front office is dedicated to excellence and Maginka firmly believe LA will be a destination for free agents. These are both good things, but as we all know, not all free agents are created equal. So what are the chances of really acquiring top tier talent ? They are much stronger than in years past, I firmly believe that with all of the improvements the team made this year. I think regardless of draft picks that currently the Lakers could sign top tier talent in free agency but they have to clear cap space. I detailed in a previous Fan Post how the team can create 70 million in cap space for the Summer of 2018. The Lakers would be very wise to do everything possible to make these moves happen for even a slim possibility of signing top tier talent over a year from now and the reason why is because it absolutely does not hurt them in the long run to do so. Disregarding draft picks completely, these moves would leave the Lakers with over 70 million in cap space and a team of Dlo, Ingram, LNJ, Zubac,and Nwaba. If Ingram or Russell make the jump to stardom that many of us believe they will then it is very easy to assemble a Big 3 or 4 in the Summer of 2018. Many of you might scratch your heads at this and wonder why the hell it would make sense to strip down the team for cap space and the reason is because the 2018 free agent class is LOADED with talent.
Before I go over the 2018 Free Agents, let's take a look at just a couple interesting top tier free agents for 2017. I think it is absolute folly to use any cap space in 2017 unless it is for one of just a few players; Dwayne Wade, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul or Blake Griffin. There are other great free agents available in 2017, and it won't hurt to see if the team could snag any great talent for cheap with probably Kyle Lowry being worth the max, but the Lakers need to save cap space for a franchise changing type talent. The specific top 5 free agents I mentioned are special in the case that they can all kick the can on their free agency to 2018 instead of this summer. I predict that Wade will stay with the Bulls for that 25 Million payday next year. I think KD and Steph get paid handsomely and gladly stay with the Warriors. Chris Paul isn't going to turn down 200 million if the Clippers offer it, he gonna get paid. Blake Griffin is the real question mark this summer and it would be interesting if he waited a year until 2018 when fellow team mate DeAndre Jordan can use his player option to opt out and also become a free agent. Wouldn't it be insane if all 5 of those players decided to wait until 2018 and threw their hats into the mega free agency pool ?
Okay, so finally I will get to the meat of this article, 2018 Free Agency. This is just a short list and does not include the amazing RFA class for the summer headlined by Joel Embiid. There are so many amazing possibilities but we won't know exactly until after this off season, and even then there will be options, eto's, extensions and many more questions. Just look at this list of names.
LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, DeMarcus Cousins, LaMarcus Aldridge, Carmelo Anthony, DeAndre Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, Brook Lopez, Danny Green, Enes Kanter, Avery Bradley, Will Barton, Trevor Ariza, Lou Williams, Ed Davis, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Favors, Boris Diaw, Gerald Henderson.
Like I said before, it's just a crazy amount of good possibilities for the Lakers if they have the cap space to sign the talent. The NBA is going to look much different after the Summer of 2018 (except Warriors Dynasty) and the Lakers could be poised to take advantage of the big talent shift if they are smart about it.