As a part of our series detailing which players the Charlotte Hornets should target in free agency, our attention shifts to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers finished with a 33-49 record, which earned them an 11th-place finish in the Western Conference.
I do not need to tell you that this was an embarrassing performance from one of the league’s most historic franchises. With so many players coming and going from season-to-season, the Lakers’ roster consists of a multitude of upcoming free agents.
Starting with the team’s restricted free agents, there is not a lot here for Charlotte to look at. Jay Huff, Mason Jones, Quincy Douby, and Mac McClung highlight LA’s restricted players, and while McClung has a shot at being an NBA rotation player, he is not there yet.
Moving on to player and team options, the Lakers have Wenyen Gabriel, Austin Reaves, and Stanley Johnson potentially coming back on team options. On the flip side, Kendrick Nunn and Russell Westbrook have player options for the 2022-23 season.
Gabriel, Reaves, and Johnson are sure to be brought back on their team-friendly deals. Nunn, who mysteriously did not play this season, should opt in at $5.1 million; there is no way he would get that in the free agent market after not playing for an entire season.
Westbrook is the difficult one. He will likely opt in to his $41.4 million for this season; he would be foolish not to. The only problem is that he is not worth that much at this point in his career. While the Lakers may want to trade him (he has been linked to the Hornets throughout the year), that salary hit is going to be difficult to move.
Onto unrestricted free agents, LA has to decide who to retain out of the following: D.J. Augustin, Malik Monk, Kent Bazemore, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington, Avery Bradley. That is a lot of free agent decisions to make for one offseason. When coupled with the laundry list of options and restricted free agents, the Lakers roster may look drastically different next season.
Of these seven unrestricted players, Monk and Bradley would make the most sense for the Hornets to pursue. For Monk, he would return to the team that originally drafted him and provide elite shooting with improved defense. As for Bradley, the aging wing can provide lockdown defense on the perimeter at a discounted price.
All of the other Lakers free agents are either not cheap enough, not young enough, or not skilled enough to be a priority target for Charlotte this offseason. Despite the plethora of Lakers to look at in the open market, I doubt the Hornets will make any moves to sign any of their free agents. There was a reason this team underperformed so much this season.