A free agent signing for the Lakers! Finally! The news broke out half an hour ago that the Lakers and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have come to terms to a one year, $18 million deal. Prior to this, KCP was an restricted free agent for the Detroit Pistons. They renounced his rights, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Pistons offered him a 5-year deal of more than $60 million to keep him around in Detroit, but he turned it down. And the Lakers swooped him in after a meeting earlier today. As much criticism that Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka were taking for not luring any free agents, they played their cards well with the limited cap room they have. This is a very underrated signing. The Lakers get a young talent who not only is a capable scorer and three point shooter, but he is a really solid defender. At worst, I thought the Lakers would roll the dice with their shaky Shooting Guard depth of JC and Josh Hart. The addition of KCP puts to rest my concerns about that uncertainty. He is a perfect compliment that should minimize Lonzo Ball's weaknesses on defense.
Now that KCP has signed on, I'm interested on how much cap room the Lakers still have. I hear they are still trying to lure Rondo to the team. According to this interesting "Salary Cap Picture" article, the Lakers had $18.7 million in cap space since the D'Lo-Mozgov trade. If we plug in KCP's deal, the team would have $700K in cap space left. Rondo should be signed no more at the Vets' minimum if that's the case. But back to the KCP signing, this is an excellent signing from Magic and Rob. This further boosts the youth movement that the Lakers are exercising with their young core. Welcome to LA, KCP!
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