Lakers rumors: Three ways to spend the new cap space in the summer

Option #1:

• Paul George: Four-year, $120 million (player option)

• Demarcus Cousins: Four-year, $100 million (Player option)

• Julius Randle: Three-year, $24 million 

• $8 million remaining for bench pieces

Centered around the hometown kid Paul George, the Los Angeles Lakers can actually now afford to bring in another star, something that may intrigue George to opt out of his contract with the Thunder. If Carmelo Anthony walks, which he might, George may take the payday in Los Angeles as soon as possible.

Cousins, on the other hand, is a bit of a risk considering he injured his Achilles and will be out until the start of next season. However, he is still a world-class talent and deserves to be front and center in a Lakers super team.

The key to making this happen is loading the contracts on the back-end. Luol Deng has two more seasons under contract following the 2018 summer, thus, George’s and Cousins pay would increase when that happened.

For George, his salary would break down as followed:

• Year one: $25 million, year two: $28 million, year three: $32 million, year four (option): $35 million.

For Cousins, his salary would break down as followed:

• Year one: $20 million, year two: $22.5 million, year three: $27.5 million, year four (option): $30 million.

Sure, $20 million may be undercutting Cousins’, but he is coming off of an injury after all and is getting a lot of guaranteed money in this deal. Sign Randle to an extension identical to Lou Williams the now the Lakers have $8 million to bring in three decent bench players.