Among the most exciting stories of the Los Angeles Lakers season so far has been the emergence of second-year guard Talen Horton-Tucker. Horton-Tucker, known to Lakers fans as THT, has gone from resident G Leaguer with the South Bay Lakers to a mainstay in the Lakers’ regular rotation over the past few weeks. Horton-Tucker just turned 20 and LeBron James has already gone on the record saying he believes he will be special, but there is one issue for the Lakers on the horizon: he will be a restricted free agent this summer.
With the way THT has played this season, his ability is no longer a secret and he will have no shortage of suitors, who also have creative ways to make matching the contract a much more difficult proposition for the Lakers. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst during the latest episode of The Hoop Collective, a point of league speculation is that another team could offer Horton-Tucker a “poison pill” contract to force the Lakers not to match.
A poison-pill, like the one the Brooklyn Nets offered to Tyler Johnson in 2016, would be backloaded to have a bigger salary in the final years of the deal while having a smaller salary in the first few. This would make it more difficult for the Lakers to match because it would tie up their cap sheet in the future seasons.
