If the Los Angeles Lakers acquire star guard Dejounte Murray before the NBA trade deadline, it seems it will take a great deal of cap massaging and need to include wingman Rui Hachimura.
For the second straight season, the Lakers have hit the midway point of their campaign with an underwhelming record and fighting for one of the final spots in the playoffs. While they were given a pass for their rough start last season since they had a new head coach, this time around panic is starting to set in, in Laker Land.
However, LA fans are hopeful they can quickly turn things around very soon because they saw it happen last year. Before the NBA trade deadline last season, general manager Rob Pelinka pulled off a slew of smaller moves that paid major dividends. His revised roster got hot in the final days of the season and went all the way to the Western Conference Finals.
That recent history is why Lakers fans hope some more trades can be done in the next couple of weeks to deliver similar results. However, making moves this time around is a bit more difficult since several players from last season’s team landed new long-term deals this past summer. So LA doesn’t have the same salary flexibility that they did this time last year.
Rui Hachimura could be key in Los Angeles Lakers landing Dejounte Murray
During a new edition of ESPN’s “Hoop Collective” podcast, NBA insider Brian Windhorst and salary cap expert Bobby Marks spoke about the situation and how the organization’s moves over the summer have them over the first “hard cap” tax apron in the collective bargaining agreement. They are also a team that has been over that threshold in four of the last five years which increases the amount they owe the league at the end of the season.
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Windhorst claims the organization would like to get under the first apron and suggested it would not take a lot of salary cap wizardry to do so and improve the roster. Atlanta Hawks star Dejounte Murray has been linked to the team in recent weeks, and Marks suggested they can add his $17 million salary and still get under the cap. And he specifically said if the team moved a certain player making $15.7 million this season would be the way to do it.
Looking at the Los Angeles Lakers payroll, the man making that money this season is Rui Hachimura, one of the additions from last year that they re-signed in the summer. He has fallen out of favor in recent rotations and now seems expendable.
However, the question is, does Atlanta feel the 25-year-old and the two years left on his deal are something they want back in return for Murray?