Free agent forward and center Christian Wood has inked a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources revealed late on Tuesday night. The 27-year-old’s $5.7 million deal includes a player option for the 2024-25 season.

Following a season with the Dallas Mavericks, Wood will be looking to establish himself as a regular for a true Western Conference contender while restoring his market value. Known for his height, frontline versatility, and depth, Wood is a skilled center who, together with fellow recent arrival, Jaxson Hayes, will be able to fill in for Anthony Davis, enabling the Lakers’ main center to catch more breaks during the season.

Averaging 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds for the Mavs last season, Wood is a skilled shooter, emerging as one of just four players 6-foot-10 or taller to score 100 3-pointers in each of the past two seasons. He has averaged 38% in each of the past four seasons and joins a Lakers team that converted just 34% of 3-pointers last campaign.

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After the Los Angeles Lakers missed out on trading for Kyrie Irving in February, many believed that the franchise is planning to revisit interest in an All-Star guard in the offseason. Irving is set to become a free agent in the summer and reportedly would like to play again with his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James in LA. But according to ESPN’s NBA Insider Brian Windhorst, the Lakers have other plans.

Speaking on his The Hoop Collective podcast earlier this week, Windhorst said that the sources close to the Lakers had told him the team won’t pursue Irving when he hits the free agency.

 “To my knowledge, and [from] what I’ve been told, the Kyrie ship I think has sailed,” Windhorst explained.

Windhorst added that the Lakers’ mindset at the moment is to keep the team as it is and try to retain their own free agents. They have nine players on their roster being set for free agency, including unrestricted free agents in D’Angelo Russell, Lonnie Walker IV, and Dennis Schröder.

The Lakers reportedly offered a package centered on former MVP Russell Westbrook and a first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Kyrie Irving ahead of the NBA trade deadline. The Nets didn’t find this offer too attractive and instead went with the Dallas Mavericks’ package that consisted of Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, and two second-rounders.

Since arriving in Dallas, Irving is averaging career-high 28.4 points per game while adding 5.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are set to be reunited with point guard D’Angelo Russell after engaging in a three-team, eight-player trade, sources familiar with the matter confirmed on Wednesday.

In addition to receiving D’Angelo Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers will also acquire Utah Jazz teammates Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. Utah will also be parting ways with guards Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who leave for the Minnesota Timberwolves. In exchange, Utah will receive Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damian Jones from the Lakers along with a 2027 first-round draft pick.

Furthermore, the Lakers will part ways with Russell Westbrook, who heads to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Losing Westbrook has been viewed as a necessary sacrifice by the Lakers, who look to revive their season by adding Russell, Beasley, and Vanderbilt to their roster, furthermore strengthening their squad around LeBron James.

Selected by the Lakers as the number two overall pick in the 2015 draft, D’Angelo Russell played two seasons in Los Angeles before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in June 2017. Russell returns to the Lakers having averaged 13.4 points while hitting 35.9% of his 3-pointers for the Jazz this season.

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The Los Angeles Lakers have added center Thomas Bryant to their roster this season, signing him on a one-year veterans minimum deal. This follows the 24-year-old player’s four-year stint with the Washington Wizards.

Bryant played a combined 37 games over the last two seasons due to suffering a torn ACL. Prior to this disruption, he proved to be a productive offensive big man, averaging 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in 46 games during the 2019-20 season in which he was at full health. All in all, Bryant has averaged 10.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

Originally drafted by the Lakers in the 2nd round of the 2017 NBA draft, the Rochester, New York native only played 52 games during his rookie season. After that, he was waived by the Lakers, thereby providing him the opportunity to move to the Wizards where he would be afforded more game time.

Standing at 6-foot-10, Bryant has been detected as an imposing figure on the offensive who could significantly bolster the Lakers’ frontcourt depth while also forming a formidable partnership alongside Anthony Davis.

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Back in 2018, Los Angeles Lakers released Luol Deng and stretched the salary they owed him in multiple instances through 2022. No one can dispute that this wasn’t a good decision, as the salary cap space they opened allowed Lakers to sign key players for this year’s NBA title run. However, stretch provision is now coming back to haunt them.

Deng’s original contract would be over after this season if the Lakers opted to remain patient. Because they didn’t, the organization is now on the hook for $5 million in each of the next two seasons despite the player being retired for more than a year.

This is why the report from The Atheltic’s Shams Charania about Lakers’ attempts to find a solution for this situation isn’t all that surprising.

According to Charania, the Lakers argue that Deng had a career-ending injury and have made an application to have his salary removed from their books because of this. In this case, the player would still receive his money, but the salary wouldn’t be counted towards their salary cap or luxury tax.  

There is a long way from here to Lakers actually getting the exception, considering that a panel of doctors must confirm that Luol Deng suffered an injury that prevented him from playing basketball professionally while with the franchise. However, in case they manage to prove this, the upside would be huge.

The organization would be able to stay under the hard cap and avoid paying a luxury tax if Deng’s $5 million is removed from their books. This would open the possibility of adding another key player using the non-taxpaying exception that lands at around $9.2 million in 2020/21.

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Following Kawhi Leonard’s signing with LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers proceeded on spending the $32 million they had in the salary cap. One of the first moves that the Lakers made in the aftermath of Leonard’s decision was resigning Rajon Rondo to a one-year deal and bringing in DeMarcus Cousins and Danny Green.

Rondo’s first season with the Lakers was marked with injuries, and he only managed to play 46 games in total in 2018/19. Still, he was quite effective when on the field, managing to average 9.2 points, 8.0 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. He returns to Lakers on a veteran minimum deal.

Cousins might not be the third star Lakers wanted to pair with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but he was the best that was left on the market. The 28-year-old big man wasn’t in demand this summer due to injury history concerns off-the-court behavior and jumped on the opportunity to play for championship contender hoping to rebuild his reputation. Cousins played a total of 30 regular-season games with the Golden State Warriors last season, averaging 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game.

Finally, Lakers signed Green, who is fresh off winning an NBA title with Toronto Raptors, to a two-year $30 million deal. The 32-year-old shooting guard averaged 9.0 points and 3.5 rebounds with the Raptors last season while shooting 45.5 percent from the 3-point line.

This wasn’t the end of Lakers’ action, as they also re-signed JaVale McGee, Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope while adding Warriors’ guard Quinn Cook on a two-year, $6 million deal.

The post Lakers Re-Sign Rajon Rondo, Add DeMarcus Cousins and Danny Green appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Los Angeles Lakers are heading into this summer with an intention to pair LeBron James with a second (and possibly a third) star in an attempt to construct a championship contender. While their main focus will be free-agency and getting Anthony Davis, the team will also explore swapping their young stars for proven veterans. Reportedly, one of the veterans Lakers are interested in trading for is Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry.

According to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, Lakers will pursue a trade for Lowry in case that Kawhi Leonard leaves Toronto in the summer. If this happens, the Raptors will presumably head into a rebuild and Lowry might find himself on the chopping block considering his expiring contract and trade potential.

For Lakers, getting Kyle Lowry would make sense as the team needs shooters, playmaking abilities, and someone who can play without the ball; and Lowry checks all these boxes. Also, trading for Lowry wouldn’t require the team to give up many of their prized assets. Finally, Lowry is becoming a free agent in 2020 so the Lakers could have enough cap space to pursue another max free agent.

Lowry played 65 games for the Raptors in the regular season and averaged 14.2 points, 8.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

Other players that Lakers might target besides Lowry according to Deveney include Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal and Utah Jazz’s Derrick Favors.

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The Los Angeles Lakers managed to pull off a deal before the NBA trade deadline, but it wasn’t the one their fans hoped for. According to ESPN‘s Marc J. Spears, Lakers agreed on a deal to acquire Detroit Pistons’ Reggie Bullock. In exchange, Pistons will receive a receive rookie guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a second-round draft pick.

Mykhailiuk was drafted No. 47 overall in 2018 NBA Draft by the Lakers but has failed to make any major impact. The 21-year-old played 10.8 minutes on average this season while averaging 3.3 points and 0.9 rebounds per game.

Spears’ reports that the second rounder Detroit received will convey in 2021, while the team will also create $2.5 million trade exception with the deal.

The Lakers struggled with shooting this season, especially from the three-point line, and Reggie Bullock might be a great solution for that problem. The 27-year-old, who was the 25th overall pick in 2013, has been a great three-point shooter throughout the better part of his career and has been shooting the ball well especially for the past two years.

 This season, Bullock is shooting 38.8 percent from three while also shooting 41.3 percent from the floor. He played 44 games in 2018-19 so far and averages 12.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

The post Lakers Acquire Reggie Bullock from Pistons appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Free agent forward and center Christian Wood has inked a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources revealed late on Tuesday night. The 27-year-old’s $5.7 million deal includes a player option for the 2024-25 season.

Following a season with the Dallas Mavericks, Wood will be looking to establish himself as a regular for a true Western Conference contender while restoring his market value. Known for his height, frontline versatility, and depth, Wood is a skilled center who, together with fellow recent arrival, Jaxson Hayes, will be able to fill in for Anthony Davis, enabling the Lakers’ main center to catch more breaks during the season.

Averaging 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds for the Mavs last season, Wood is a skilled shooter, emerging as one of just four players 6-foot-10 or taller to score 100 3-pointers in each of the past two seasons. He has averaged 38% in each of the past four seasons and joins a Lakers team that converted just 34% of 3-pointers last campaign.

The post Christian Wood Signs 2-Year Deal With Lakers appeared first on SportzBonanza.

After the Los Angeles Lakers missed out on trading for Kyrie Irving in February, many believed that the franchise is planning to revisit interest in an All-Star guard in the offseason. Irving is set to become a free agent in the summer and reportedly would like to play again with his former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate LeBron James in LA. But according to ESPN’s NBA Insider Brian Windhorst, the Lakers have other plans.

Speaking on his The Hoop Collective podcast earlier this week, Windhorst said that the sources close to the Lakers had told him the team won’t pursue Irving when he hits the free agency.

 “To my knowledge, and [from] what I’ve been told, the Kyrie ship I think has sailed,” Windhorst explained.

Windhorst added that the Lakers’ mindset at the moment is to keep the team as it is and try to retain their own free agents. They have nine players on their roster being set for free agency, including unrestricted free agents in D’Angelo Russell, Lonnie Walker IV, and Dennis Schröder.

The Lakers reportedly offered a package centered on former MVP Russell Westbrook and a first-round pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Kyrie Irving ahead of the NBA trade deadline. The Nets didn’t find this offer too attractive and instead went with the Dallas Mavericks’ package that consisted of Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, an unprotected 2029 first-round pick, and two second-rounders.

Since arriving in Dallas, Irving is averaging career-high 28.4 points per game while adding 5.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists.

The post Lakers Reportedly Won’t Pursue All-Star Guard Kyrie Irving in the Offseason appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The Los Angeles Lakers are set to be reunited with point guard D’Angelo Russell after engaging in a three-team, eight-player trade, sources familiar with the matter confirmed on Wednesday.

In addition to receiving D’Angelo Russell from the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Lakers will also acquire Utah Jazz teammates Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. Utah will also be parting ways with guards Mike Conley and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who leave for the Minnesota Timberwolves. In exchange, Utah will receive Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damian Jones from the Lakers along with a 2027 first-round draft pick.

Furthermore, the Lakers will part ways with Russell Westbrook, who heads to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Losing Westbrook has been viewed as a necessary sacrifice by the Lakers, who look to revive their season by adding Russell, Beasley, and Vanderbilt to their roster, furthermore strengthening their squad around LeBron James.

Selected by the Lakers as the number two overall pick in the 2015 draft, D’Angelo Russell played two seasons in Los Angeles before being traded to the Brooklyn Nets in June 2017. Russell returns to the Lakers having averaged 13.4 points while hitting 35.9% of his 3-pointers for the Jazz this season.

The post Lakers Reacquire Russell in Three-Team Trade appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The Los Angeles Lakers have added center Thomas Bryant to their roster this season, signing him on a one-year veterans minimum deal. This follows the 24-year-old player’s four-year stint with the Washington Wizards.

Bryant played a combined 37 games over the last two seasons due to suffering a torn ACL. Prior to this disruption, he proved to be a productive offensive big man, averaging 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in 46 games during the 2019-20 season in which he was at full health. All in all, Bryant has averaged 10.2 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.

Originally drafted by the Lakers in the 2nd round of the 2017 NBA draft, the Rochester, New York native only played 52 games during his rookie season. After that, he was waived by the Lakers, thereby providing him the opportunity to move to the Wizards where he would be afforded more game time.

Standing at 6-foot-10, Bryant has been detected as an imposing figure on the offensive who could significantly bolster the Lakers’ frontcourt depth while also forming a formidable partnership alongside Anthony Davis.

The post Lakers Sign Thomas Bryant On One-Year Deal appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Back in 2018, Los Angeles Lakers released Luol Deng and stretched the salary they owed him in multiple instances through 2022. No one can dispute that this wasn’t a good decision, as the salary cap space they opened allowed Lakers to sign key players for this year’s NBA title run. However, stretch provision is now coming back to haunt them.

Deng’s original contract would be over after this season if the Lakers opted to remain patient. Because they didn’t, the organization is now on the hook for $5 million in each of the next two seasons despite the player being retired for more than a year.

This is why the report from The Atheltic’s Shams Charania about Lakers’ attempts to find a solution for this situation isn’t all that surprising.

According to Charania, the Lakers argue that Deng had a career-ending injury and have made an application to have his salary removed from their books because of this. In this case, the player would still receive his money, but the salary wouldn’t be counted towards their salary cap or luxury tax.  

There is a long way from here to Lakers actually getting the exception, considering that a panel of doctors must confirm that Luol Deng suffered an injury that prevented him from playing basketball professionally while with the franchise. However, in case they manage to prove this, the upside would be huge.

The organization would be able to stay under the hard cap and avoid paying a luxury tax if Deng’s $5 million is removed from their books. This would open the possibility of adding another key player using the non-taxpaying exception that lands at around $9.2 million in 2020/21.

The post Lakers Trying to Exclude Luol Deng’s Salary from Salary Cap appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Following Kawhi Leonard’s signing with LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers proceeded on spending the $32 million they had in the salary cap. One of the first moves that the Lakers made in the aftermath of Leonard’s decision was resigning Rajon Rondo to a one-year deal and bringing in DeMarcus Cousins and Danny Green.

Rondo’s first season with the Lakers was marked with injuries, and he only managed to play 46 games in total in 2018/19. Still, he was quite effective when on the field, managing to average 9.2 points, 8.0 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. He returns to Lakers on a veteran minimum deal.

Cousins might not be the third star Lakers wanted to pair with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but he was the best that was left on the market. The 28-year-old big man wasn’t in demand this summer due to injury history concerns off-the-court behavior and jumped on the opportunity to play for championship contender hoping to rebuild his reputation. Cousins played a total of 30 regular-season games with the Golden State Warriors last season, averaging 16.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game.

Finally, Lakers signed Green, who is fresh off winning an NBA title with Toronto Raptors, to a two-year $30 million deal. The 32-year-old shooting guard averaged 9.0 points and 3.5 rebounds with the Raptors last season while shooting 45.5 percent from the 3-point line.

This wasn’t the end of Lakers’ action, as they also re-signed JaVale McGee, Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope while adding Warriors’ guard Quinn Cook on a two-year, $6 million deal.

The post Lakers Re-Sign Rajon Rondo, Add DeMarcus Cousins and Danny Green appeared first on SportzBonanza.

Los Angeles Lakers are heading into this summer with an intention to pair LeBron James with a second (and possibly a third) star in an attempt to construct a championship contender. While their main focus will be free-agency and getting Anthony Davis, the team will also explore swapping their young stars for proven veterans. Reportedly, one of the veterans Lakers are interested in trading for is Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry.

According to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, Lakers will pursue a trade for Lowry in case that Kawhi Leonard leaves Toronto in the summer. If this happens, the Raptors will presumably head into a rebuild and Lowry might find himself on the chopping block considering his expiring contract and trade potential.

For Lakers, getting Kyle Lowry would make sense as the team needs shooters, playmaking abilities, and someone who can play without the ball; and Lowry checks all these boxes. Also, trading for Lowry wouldn’t require the team to give up many of their prized assets. Finally, Lowry is becoming a free agent in 2020 so the Lakers could have enough cap space to pursue another max free agent.

Lowry played 65 games for the Raptors in the regular season and averaged 14.2 points, 8.7 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

Other players that Lakers might target besides Lowry according to Deveney include Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal and Utah Jazz’s Derrick Favors.

The post Lakers Reportedly Interested in Trading for Raptors’ Kyle Lowry appeared first on SportzBonanza.

The Los Angeles Lakers managed to pull off a deal before the NBA trade deadline, but it wasn’t the one their fans hoped for. According to ESPN‘s Marc J. Spears, Lakers agreed on a deal to acquire Detroit Pistons’ Reggie Bullock. In exchange, Pistons will receive a receive rookie guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and a second-round draft pick.

Mykhailiuk was drafted No. 47 overall in 2018 NBA Draft by the Lakers but has failed to make any major impact. The 21-year-old played 10.8 minutes on average this season while averaging 3.3 points and 0.9 rebounds per game.

Spears’ reports that the second rounder Detroit received will convey in 2021, while the team will also create $2.5 million trade exception with the deal.

The Lakers struggled with shooting this season, especially from the three-point line, and Reggie Bullock might be a great solution for that problem. The 27-year-old, who was the 25th overall pick in 2013, has been a great three-point shooter throughout the better part of his career and has been shooting the ball well especially for the past two years.

 This season, Bullock is shooting 38.8 percent from three while also shooting 41.3 percent from the floor. He played 44 games in 2018-19 so far and averages 12.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.

The post Lakers Acquire Reggie Bullock from Pistons appeared first on SportzBonanza.