At least the Los Angeles Lakers picked their on-court path.<\/p>\n
Yeah, the Lakers lost, at worst, one of the greatest players ever in LeBron James. Gone, too, is one of the best playoff shooters by percentage in league history, the second-greatest 3-point shooter by percentage in regular-season history, a former NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a former No. 1 pick at center.<\/p>\n
They replaced all of it by handing out nearly $480 million over 26 combined contract years, including four player options, to a group of players who have zero combined All-Star appearances or year-end awards.<\/p>\n
When you think of it that way, it\u2019s all a bit scary. The Lakers did so against a backdrop of even more change, with a shocking sale occurring<\/a> just as they started moving in a new direction under Mark Walter\u2019s ownership.<\/p>\n But not everything the Lakers did this summer is terrifying, at least not in a Michael Myers sense (one \u201chuman\u201d the Lakers were never linked to this summer). Some moves were obvious, some were sensible, some were costly and some were risky. And had they added Jonathan Kuminga to the list, the risk\/reward would only be more pronounced.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a thin line between scary and inspired.\u00a0For our purposes, we\u2019re going to look at the Lakers\u2019 summer decisions and rank them from least risky to scariest, using the likelihood of a worst-case scenario as our guide.<\/p>\n Have Lakers built Luka a contending roster?<\/p>\n Dan Woike and Jeshua Kidd<\/p>\n Risk ranking (least to most) Ziaire Williams: One year, $2.85 million<\/p>\n A signing that made a lot of sense for the Lakers the second the Brooklyn Nets declined his team option, Williams will still be just 25 when the Lakers open training camp. Yes, he\u2019s probably too slight to be counted on for big minutes every night as a point-of-attack defender, but there are some winning-player traits here, and the cost to the team\u2019s cap sheet was relatively nothing. The signing is pure upside with no real risk if it doesn\u2019t work out. And if it does, the Lakers will have added a youthful athlete<\/a> with some 3-and-D skills who can play without the ball alongside their stars.<\/p>\n Cameron Carr: Four years, $16.82 million<\/p>\n The Lakers traded up one spot to draft Carr, betting on a combination of youth, shooting and vertical athleticism. Picking in the 20s, even in the first round of a stacked NBA Draft like this year\u2019s, requires some luck. The necessary luck here lessens when you seemingly have indisputable NBA-ready skills, and Carr already has two. One, he looks like a deadeye shooter, both off movement and in catch-and-shoot opportunities. And two, he can really jump in transition. The other parts of his game, like defensive strength and mentality, will determine how high his ceiling can be.<\/p>\n Maybe the Lakers will look back at this pick and regret not fortifying their center rotation. (Had they known then they\u2019d trade for Walker Kessler and send out Deandre Ayton shortly after the draft, maybe they\u2019d have moved differently.) But Carr\u2019s floor seems workable enough because of the things he can already do.<\/p>\n Collin Sexton: Two years, $19.2 million (player option)<\/p>\n Of the rumors percolating about the Lakers\u2019 summer plans leading up to the official start of free agency, the buzz around Sexton was the quietest. Bench scoring was among the areas of need from a year ago, and getting a player capable of taking on-ball possessions from Luka Don\u010di\u0107 and Austin Reaves made sense. Lowering their usages, by volume if not by overall rate, was a must this summer, and Sexton is a truly efficient offensive scorer.<\/p>\n Sexton\u2019s been fairly durable the past three seasons, which is a plus for this exercise. While he\u2019s been willing to try defensively, his size and limitations on that side of the ball have been an issue. But for the room exception, the Lakers should get a good return per dollar spent in terms of offensive production. And if the player option was the cost to secure Sexton, so be it.<\/p>\n Matisse Thybulle: One year, $3.29 million<\/p>\n Signing someone to the\u00a016th guaranteed deal on a roster<\/a> is inherently low-risk, though Thybulle\u2019s injury moves him up this list. We know he\u2019s going to defend, even if injuries and age have somewhat slowed him. We can reasonably believe his limited catch-and-shoot diet will translate playing next to guys with gravity such as Don\u010di\u0107 and Reaves.<\/p>\n The risk here is counting on Thybulle to solve your point-of-attack problems while being healthy.<\/p>\n Deandre Ayton: Traded to Wizards for Jaden Hardy (one year, $6 million) and two second-round picks<\/p>\n I ran this by a rival NBA executive, who spoke under condition of anonymity so they could speak freely about another team\u2019s roster, who felt this was too far down the list. On the surface, the move was a big win for a Lakers team that was looking for outs after Ayton picked up his player option. Whether or not Hardy matters this season, the draft capital brought in was a pleasant surprise for the Lakers\u2019 front office.<\/p>\n But it came at a real cost, further leveraging their biggest bet of the summer. While Ayton wasn\u2019t a perfect fit for the Lakers, the team did win 50-plus games and a playoff series with him as the starting center last season. That would\u2019ve been a nice safety net. The Lakers decided they\u2019d rather have the added flexibility those two seconds would add to their near-empty cache of picks.<\/p>\n Kevon Looney: One year, $3.86 million<\/p>\n No minimum player the Lakers signed this summer is more accomplished than Looney, a proven winner willing to do all of the ugly things coaches love and teams need. He\u2019ll set big screens, scrap for extra possessions and play hard even if he doesn\u2019t get to touch the ball, let alone shoot it.<\/p>\n But he played only 21 games last season, and because of the Ayton trade, he\u2019s now the primary backup center for someone who played 16 fewer games than he did a season ago. It\u2019s fair to worry about his availability and, on top of that, his effectiveness at this stage of his career, regardless of the light contractual commitment. The scare here is impact, not finances.<\/p>\n Quentin Grimes: Four years, $60 million (player option)<\/p>\n Sometimes, you don\u2019t have to crack a bunch of film to find a red flag. With Grimes, here\u2019s the most crimson one: He\u2019s played five seasons in the NBA and been traded four times with the best player a team got in return being Tim Hardaway Jr. It\u2019s lazy scouting, but that doesn\u2019t make it less true.<\/p>\n The Lakers are hoping they can be the place to provide Grimes more stability<\/a>. Situation and opportunity often fuel role-player breakouts. The Lakers hope Grimes can play on the ball defensively as he did early in his career. They also hope he can remain an offensive threat away from the ball similar to how he was last season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a pretty hefty bet \u2014 basically the full midlevel \u2014 he\u2019ll be able to do it. If not, these are the kinds of contracts teams want to avoid, even for productive players, because of the lifespan of the commitment (with a player option to boot).<\/p>\n Austin Reaves: Four years, $184.8 million (player option)<\/p>\n One Western Conference scouting guru, who spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, argued Reaves was too far up this list because any risk the Lakers assumed by signing Reaves to this deal was less than the risk they would\u2019ve taken on had they let him walk for nothing \u2014 a very real possibility with the Detroit Pistons a close second here<\/a>. The Lakers, in their negotiations with Reaves, eventually committed to him as Don\u010di\u0107\u2019s backcourt partner, and they did so at market price. These kinds of deals, the second they\u2019re signed, become difficult to move, and not being able to easily trade a player makes for a bit of a fright.<\/p>\n The good news here is that Reaves has succeeded every time his responsibilities have increased as a pro. They\u2019re increasing this season with LeBron James gone. And even if it\u2019s just a small chance this doesn\u2019t work, that chance is enough for this deal to end up here in the top three.<\/p>\n Sandro Mamukelashvili: Four years, $52 million (player option)<\/p>\n