The Los Angeles Lakers were reportedly confident in their ability to open up max cap space in order to pursue some of the top free agents this summer. And finally, we now know why.
The Lakers have agreed to trade Moe Wagner, Jemerrio Jones and Isaac Bonga to the Washington Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis trade, which is expected to be completed on July 6 when the free agent moratorium ends, according to ESPN’s duo of Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowksi.
The Athletic’s Shams Charnia says the Lakers gave up a 2022 second round pick in order to execute the deal.
The move allows the Lakers to start free agency, which opens on Sunday at 3 p.m. PDT, with approximately $32 million in cap space. That would be enough to offer players such as Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson maximum salary deals to join them. Irving is expected to go to Brooklyn but everyone else could seemingly be in play.
It would also give them the ability to offer D’Angelo Russell around $20 million annually, as reported by Eric Pincus, while also giving them a chance to fill out their roster with the remaining $12 million.
