Лэйкэрс Остин Ривзтэй гэрээгээ сунгаж, ЛаМэло Болл Миннесота Тимбервулвс руу шилжлээ

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Last night’s second round of the draft wasn’t too earth shattering. My favorite picks were Bruce Thornton to Houston at No. 31, Isaiah Evans to Minnesota at 33, Meleek Thomas to Cleveland at 34 and Emanuel Sharp to Sacramento at 45.Here’s the full breakdown of all things draft!

Oh, andthe Hornets just agreed to trade LaMelo Ballto the Timberwolves! More on that below.

Pay Day

How do Lakers structure their roster now?

Before Austin Reaves could truly test the free-agent waters, the Lakers decided to eliminate the option. They didn’t want a team like Detroit or someone else poaching Reaves away from them.

The Lakers offered up $185 million over four seasons to Reaves, andhe agreed to it.That’s an average annual salary of $46.25 million. Considering Reaves had to turn down a $14.9 million player option to do this, it feels like tripling your salary is a pretty good thing.

Reaves does have a player option for the fourth season, and we need to get clarification on the structure of the payout, but the annual salaries for this deal will likely be in the range of $41.25M, $44.55M, $47.85M and $51.15M, respectively.

That leaves the Lakers paying $90.7 million to Luka Dončić and Reaves this season, with the salary cap estimated to be around $165 million.In two years, the Lakers will find themselves paying over $100 million annually for this backcourt,and while the offense from them will be stupendous, the defense means you have to fill out this roster pretty carefully.

So what does that look like in the short-term?

If LeBron James is expected to come back to the Lakers for one (???) more season, how much he’s willing to give up in salary will be one of two major keys to whether or not the Lakers can truly re-shape their roster this summer. Going into free agency, the Lakers will have eight players under contract for certain. Those players total up a little over $121 million.The Lakers could, in theory, have around $44 million to play with, except that’s not the case at all.

Deandre Ayton has a player option for $8.1 million, Marcus Smart has a player option for $5.3 million and Nick Smith Jr. has a team option for $2.4 million. Those all eat into the $44 million (making it more like $28 million). If those options all get picked up, the Lakers are at 11 players on their roster.

What about the free-agent crop? What’s it look like for them?

You can maybe get a significant player or two at $28 million. If we’re looking at wings and big men on the market, here are some players who are out there:

• Wings/forwards:John Collins, Tobias Harris, Khris Middleton, Harrison Barnes, Simone Fontecchio, Bruce Brown
• Big men:Kristaps Porzingis, Nikola Vučević, Jusuf Nurkić, Zach Collins, Mo Wagner

That’s essentially the market. Free agency just doesn’t have significant names for them to actually get. Don’t kid yourself with internet fodder of people wondering if the Lakers could sign Jalen Duren or Walker Kessler. You’re not doing that for under $30 million per season. Even if the players agreed (they wouldn’t), their teams would match that offer sheet without thinking about it.

The Lakers don’t actually have flexibility.

Why? Because of LeBron. The Lakers don’t actually have that $28 million figure to play with in cap space. They wouldn’t have that $44 million either if Ayton and Smart declined their options and the Lakers declined the team option on Smith.Because LeBron’s free agency has a cap hold over their cap space.

The Lakers would have to renounce LeBron’s free-agent rights to clear it up, and then you can’t re-sign him without LeBron, 41, becoming a very generous person. You’re talking about getting LeBron for pennies versus what he should expect to still sign for.

If LeBron moves on to a team like Golden State or Cleveland, then the Lakers could utilize that cap space. If he’s sticking around, they’re operating within thin margins again, hoping free agents want to take a massive discount to play with LeBron, Luka and Reaves. That’s a possibility, but they’re not the most attractive destination.

Again, this is all assuming LeBron isn’t retiring and is returning to the Lakers.

So, is it another year of the same in L.A.?

Probably! Is that so bad? Technically, no? The Lakers will bank on the fact that from February 28 to March 31, they went 16-2. They had the fourth-best offense and ninth-best defense during that stretch. They also went 26-6 over a longer stretch, which featured the fifth-best offense and 12th-best defense.

If the Lakers believethatis the team they are, then you can feel pretty good about essentially running it back next season. More than likely, they can’t hang with OKC and San Antonio, but they can put themselves in the conversation with Denver and Minnesota in that second tier.

Then maybe the summer of 2027 is when we see a significant change in the players around Luka and Reaves.

The Last 24

🦊They still believe.De’Aaron Fox had a brutal NBA Finals for the Spurs.They still believe in him and this group.

🏀 Things done changed.The top NBA picks in each draft are now expected to deliver wins.This is all Wemby’s fault.

☘️ Honest talks.Brad Stevens didn’t want to blindside Jaylen Brown.He was honest with him before Giannis interest leaked.

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!)and catch out-of-market games onLeague Pass.

🚨 Trade

LaMelo to Timberwolves

After the draft last night, the news circulating was that the Hornets were taking phone calls for Ball, their franchise point guard. The Hornets just had their best season since 2015-16, winning 44 games and having the third-best record in the NBA (28-10) after January 21. So naturally they’re going to … trade their biggest star?

Yep. And it moved at full speed.

The Hornets aresending Ball and Josh Green to Minnesotafor Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three second-round picks and a series of first-round pick swaps. Like … so many pick swaps (2028, 2029, 2030).

When I first heard the Timberwolves and Raptors were possible landing spots for Ball, yes, I was just as confused as you are. I’m just as confused now about the details of this deal and the urgency with which it happened.When I asked a league source about it during the rumors phase, he said: “I don’t know what they are doing lol.”That will make Wolves fans feel better.

The Wolves wanted to bring in a secondary playmaker next to Anthony Edwards. Their lack of one has been a glaring issue in the playoffs since their loss to Dallas in the 2024 Western Conference final. It resurfaced again against OKC in the 2025 conference final. But their issue against San Antonio in the second round this season was about competent perimeter defense and players who can match up against Victor Wembanyama.

LaMelo doesn’t help any of that.He can be a great scorer and very good playmaker, but he’s also an atrocious defender. Losing Reid and all of your draft capital/flexibility here is curious.

As for Charlotte, Ball had three years left on his deal but maybe it didn’t want to offer up the two-year extension for roughly $120 million this summer. Reid can start right away for the Hornets and stretch the floor in a way they haven’t had. Plus, they have control of Minnesota’s draft for much of the next seven years.

Amend the Apron

NBA, please fix this stupid system

To Adam Silver and whom else it may concern, I hate the current Collective Bargaining System. I believe it is keeping the NBA from being its absolute best. I’d like to renew my complaints on the first- and second-aprons system that the NBA believes will help competitive balance.

It actually sucks. It’s a bad, ill-informed, poorly designed system to prevent problems that I don’t believe deter the NBA from being great.

I was reading John Hollinger’s latest column about why so many teams traded out of the first round. And, of course,the answer is money, to avoid the aprons:

“Nonetheless, New York, Denver, Minnesota and Cleveland began Monday owning picks 24, 26, 28 and 29, respectively. All four ended the first round with no players but a clutch of second-round picks.”

As Hollinger shows the math on the defending champion Knicks specifically, they saved $2 million moving from 24th down to 47th in the draft. Why would this matter? They’re going to be up against the second apron, and it will probably cost them Mitchell Robinson in free agency. Saving the $2 million from trading down in the draft might help them keep Landry Shamet though. And that’s where this apron rule needs a new calculation.

We’re never going away from the aprons, just like we’re never going away from the luxury tax. But what the league can do is stop punishing teams for putting together good teams.Organizations should not have to pay a dollar-for-dollar penalty into the aprons for players they’ve drafted or for players whose rights they acquired in draft-night trades.Yes, the Knicks have mostly signed or traded for their championship core. But Robinson was drafted by them, and teams should not be punished for drafting well.

Players you’ve brought into the league should only count for half of that amount when it comes to moving into the aprons. The NBA won’t get rid of it, but it can at least amend it for teams that scouted and drafted well.