Report: Lakers Make Trade With Wizards, Clear Max Space

The Los Angeles Lakers have started building a strong roster, and they have already made a few bold moves. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are trading Isaac Bonga, Moritz Wagner and Jemerrio Jones to the Washington Wizards. The Wizards will get a 2022-second round pick from the Lakers for absorbing those contract. The deal will be combined with the Anthony Davis trade, so yes, the Lakers will manage to seal a three-team deal.

“The Lakers are trading Mo Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Jemerrio Jones to Wizards as part of the Anthony Davis deal with New Orleans, league sources tell @ZachLowe_NBA and me. Deal clears contracts and creates more cap space for free agency,” Wojnarowski tweeted.

This gives the Lakers a chance to seal the trade as an over the cap franchise. The Wizards will send the Pelicans $1.1 million for the accomodation. The information was confirmed by Candace Bucker of The Washington Post.

This will give the Lakers enough cap space. Of course, this isn’t the max cap space they can provide. Players with 7-9 years of experience will earn $32 million next season. This is a similar amount to the money they will get in free agency.

Things got easier when Davis decided to waive his trade bonus. He was due a $4 million bonus for the trade. The bonus would have been provided by the Pelicans, and the Lakers would have been stuck with that money from a cap perspective. The Lakers may have cleared the max space with the bonus but it would have involved signing-and-trading backup point guard Alex Caruso. Davis waived his bonus, and the Lakers can use Caruso without changing their cap space.

How will the Lakers spend their cap space? They will have to add another star to the roster. Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving are an option. However, the team hasn’t made a move towards any of the players.

Second-round pick Talen Horton-Tucker, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma and Davis are the only players on the roster at the moment. In other words, the Lakers will have to work really hard in the next few weeks.