The Lakers have more players under contract than they can field heading into the season, but they also still don\u2019t have an obvious answer for who will occupy the starting power forward role next year.<\/p>\n
Taking into account Los Angeles\u2019 limited assets \u2013 both financially and in terms of trade chips \u2013 and the few targets left on the market, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report<\/a> looks at three potential solutions to shore up the team\u2019s starting frontcourt: Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>, P.J. Washington<\/a>, and De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kuminga has struggled to find the kind of contract he is looking for, and the Hawks have built out their wing depth significantly this summer. A sign-and-trade would likely be the only pathway for the Lakers to acquire him, and would probably have to include two of Jaden Hardy<\/a>, Jake LaRavia<\/a>, Jarred Vanderbilt<\/a>, and Dalton Knecht<\/a>, Pincus writes, noting that a third team would be needed in order to keep the Hawks out of the tax.<\/p>\n It was previously reported<\/a> that the Lakers were offering \u201csignificantly\u201d more money to Kuminga than the Timberwolves, who are also said to hold some level of interest.<\/p>\n Washington would be a pretty ideal fit for the Lakers\u2019 needs and has plenty of experience playing with Luka Doncic<\/a> in Dallas. The Mavericks have a logjam at the forward positions, but they still seem to value Washington and could ask for more than what the Lakers are able to offer. Hunter would probably cost less, has good size, and can shoot the ball, but he isn\u2019t quite the defender that L.A. needs.<\/p>\n We have more from around the Pacific Division:<\/p>\n De\u2019Anthony Melton<\/a> recently re-signed with the Warriors on a two-year deal<\/a> that includes a player option in year two. While the initial reporting was that he had signed an $11MM deal, his final number came in slightly higher than expected, at $12.46MM total, Spotrac\u2019s Keith Smith notes (via Twitter<\/a>). He will earn $6.06MM in year one, and the second-year player option is for $6.37MM, with Golden State using the full taxpayer mid-level exception<\/a> to complete the signing.
\nMalevy Leons<\/a> impressed the Warriors\u2018 coaching staff in Summer League with his offensive rebounding and willingness to take open shots, Dalton Johnson writes for NBC Sports Bay Area<\/a>. With both Moses Moody<\/a> and Jimmy Butler<\/a> injured to start the season, the team will badly need wings who step up and provide the kind of tenacious, gritty playing style the team values during the regular season. After playing 25 games for Golden State last season, Leons could be in a position to do just that, Johnson suggests.
\nThe Clippers\u2018 No. 5 overall pick, Keaton Wagler<\/a>, is attempting to make the transition from his hometown of Shawnee, Kansas (population 70,000) to Los Angeles. That\u2019s where the NBA\u2019s rookie transition program is so helpful, Tomer Azarly writes for ClutchPoints<\/a>. The program\u2019s first session, held ahead of Summer League in Las Vegas, covered many important areas, from on-court role changes to off-court keys to success, Wagner told Azarly. \u201cHaving \u2026 people who are in the Hall of Fame that want to teach you and you can learn a lot from them, how they went about their days in the NBA, how hard they had to work to win games,\u201d the rookie guard said. \u201c\u2026 Chris Bosh had talked to us, kind of before that, too, and said that, you know, his role has changed when he was in Miami with LeBron (James)<\/a>, and he turned more into a defensive role player versus a scorer. And I just think, you know, it\u2019s, it\u2019s being like the willing to help the team win no matter what your role is on the team.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers have more players under contract than they can field heading into the season, but they also…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,13375,42824,26292,6],"class_list":["post-804145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-deanthony-melton","tag-keaton-wagler","tag-malevy-leons","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117041768975814873","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}