Lakers Rumors: How LA can survive the worst case scenario this summer

Let Brook Lopez and KCP walk away

The two positions outside of point guard that the Los Angeles Lakers still need answers at are shooting guard and center. Signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Brook Lopez last summer made me think about losing faith about the team’s ability to go big in free agency anyway.

Turns out, so far, that’s pretty accurate.

Caldwell-Pope doesn’t do much to make this team a contender, let alone win games. And the apparent lack of direction or flow without Lonzo Ball on the floor only speaks more to that end. Not only that, but the Lakers are going to need to take this position much more seriously if they think they’ll be able to contend anytime soon.

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Keeping Kyle Kuzma at power forward seems like the right thing to do moving forward, and Ball is obviously the center of attention for a long time coming at the top. Brandon Ingram still has room to grow, but trading for Paul George like in the previous slide solves that problem for now.

Letting Lopez walk is just as easy of a decision in my mind, because then it really makes it a point of emphasis in the summer instead of trying to go flashy. They’ll be getting some cap space with Lopez taking his money and running, all without giving up more of the young core than they need to.

In the trade scenario for Paul George that I mentioned, giving up Julius Randle is enticing enough for the Lakers to give just him up without dealing guys like Josh Hart or Jordan Clarkson.

They can give Hart more minutes alongside Ball and the other young players to see what he can do in the starting lineup and go from there at shooting guard. However, going after a star center should probably be their choice of action at this point.

And that’s okay. Noteworthy big men that will be available to talk to include DeMarcus Cousins, Clint Capela, and Jusuf Nurkic. By then, Los Angeles will have a much more attractive team than they have right now, anyway.

This makes free agency much less stressful for them, which I doubt they wouldn’t want.