It appears that the Los Angeles Lakers will need to include wingman Rui Hachimura and do a lot of cap wrangling if they manage to acquire star guard Dejounte Murray prior to the NBA trade deadline.
The Lakers are contending for one of the final playoff spots and have an unimpressive record at this point in the season for the second consecutive year. Although their poor start to the previous season was overlooked because they had a new head coach, fear is beginning to spread throughout Laker Land this time around.
But because they witnessed it happen the year before, LA supporters are optimistic that they can swiftly turn things around very soon. Last season, general manager Rob Pelinka made a number of smaller decisions that had a big impact before the NBA trade deadline. In the last few days of the season, his revamped team picked up steam and advanced all the way to the Western Conference Finals.
Lakers supporters are hoping that additional trades can be made in the upcoming weeks to produce comparable outcomes because of this recent history. Making moves this season is a little more challenging, though, as a number of the team’s players from the previous campaign signed new long-term contracts this past summer.
NBA insider Brian Windhorst and salary cap expert Bobby Marks discussed the situation and how the organization’s actions over the summer have put them over the first “hard cap” tax provision in the collective bargaining agreement during a recent episode of ESPN’s “Hoop Collective” podcast. The amount they owe the league at the conclusion of the season is increased because they are a team that has exceeded that threshold in four of the previous five years.
Related: Following their recent struggles, three Los Angeles Lakers trade targets
According to Windhorst, the organization wants to get under the first apron and he suggested that improving the roster and doing so wouldn’t require a lot of salary cap magic. Dejounte Murray of the Atlanta Hawks has been
