Lakers trade: Three Reasons why the Isaiah Thomas trade is perfect

1. The freed up cap space

Obviously.

Every move, every rumor, every storyline around the Los Angeles Lakers for the past year has been about freeing up salary cap space. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka took over a team that handed out huge contracts to the likes of Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov. Los Angeles was not winning. The motive became clear. Clear up money.

And for the most part, the Lakers front office has done a wonderful job of balancing this budget alongside winning. While the Lakers are still a fringe playoff team at best, they are a lot better than other rebuilding teams and have made tremendous progress in the last three years.

This trade freed up perhaps the only salary cap space that could have been freed up in Jordan Clarkson. Although Luol Deng is still under contract, there is no way any team is taking that on without a hefty package.

Clarkson is owed locked down until the 2020 summer and is set to make $25 million after this season. While a $25 million over two seasons is not bad, it certainly was not worth Clarkson; especially with him taking a bench role behind Lonzo Ball.

Thus, with the 2018 and 2019 summer in mind, the Lakers pulled the trigger and finally let go of Clarkson. Both Thomas and Frye are on expiring deals, neither are likely to return after this season. The Lakers now have $61 million in practical cap space for next season; more than enough to start the process towards the next super team.