Mark Williams trade rescinded: What comes next for Lakers on buyout market and in the offseason – CBS Sports
Source: CBS Sports
The Los Angeles Lakers tried to thread the needle between present and future when they traded for Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams. In the long run, they thought they’d found the big man they’d pair with Luka Doncic for the next decade. In the short term, however, they were just happy to have a warm body of a certain height. Center was a position of need for the Lakers even with Anthony Davis on the team (he told us so himself).
But with the Williams trade now rescinded, reportedly due to a failed physical, the Lakers are thinner up front than ever. Davis is gone and his replacement isn’t coming aboard either. That leaves the Lakers with Jaxson Hayes as the only clear center on the team. Maxi Kleber, acquired in the Doncic trade, has played some center in small doses, but is really more of a forward and is out for at least the next eight weeks. Trey Jemison and Christian Koloko are there on two-way deals, but neither has proven much. The cabinet is pretty empty here.
So what does this mean? Where do the Lakers go from here, both for the remainder of the season and for the long haul? Let’s dive in and try to sift through the wreckage of this trade.
No. Under normal circumstances, a trade that is held up by a failed physical can be amended. This just happened a few days ago, when the Philadelphia 76ers added a second-round pick to their Caleb Martin-to-Quentin Grimes swap to push it over the top after Martin’s hip injury created a bit of an obstacle. However, that amendment was completed before the trade deadline. This one, obviously, was not. The Lakers needed more time to get Williams into the building and examine him, so their options here were to simply pass him and complete the trade or rescind it entirely. They chose the latter, so the trade is dead unless both sides are interested in rekindling talks over the summer. The deadline has passed, so the Lakers can’t go out and trade for a different center.
The big winner in this situation? Jaxson Hayes. Despite struggling in a backup role for parts of the season, he is now in line for major minutes on a team with Luka Doncic and LeBron James right before he returns to unrestricted free agency. If ever he had a chance to prove his value to the Lakers and to the rest of the NBA, it’s now.
Hayes has all of the tools to be a good NBA center. He’s a true 7-footer with an even longer wingspan, and he’s an incredibly bouncy athlete that can get up and finish the lobs Doncic loves to throw. However, he’s never been an especially strong rebounder, and while he’s an imposing shot-blocker in limited minutes, his overall defensive positioning is inconsistent. The Lakers have spent the better part of two years trying to mold him into at least a strong backup. The results have been mixed. They can’t afford to be any longer.
Don’t be surprised to see some James-at-center minutes as well. The Lakers have to be careful with the physical burden they put on their 40-year-old, but remember, he no longer has to carry the offense on his shoulders. With Doncic and Austin Reaves in place, he can devote more energy to defense, and while he isn’t center-sized, his basketball IQ means he’s almost always in perfect position defensively when he wants to be. It’s a look that JJ Redick has tinkered with a bit (342 total possessions this season), but one that Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel tried a bit more regularly during their head coaching stints. The results have been about what you’d expect: The lineups tend to be pretty good on offense and pretty bad on defense. Frankly, given the personnel here, that is going to be the case for most Laker lineups moving forward.
Ultimately, though, it’s hard to imagine the Lakers don’t add at least one center. There’s a bit of an obstacle, though, because the Lakers are above the first luxury tax apron. That means they can only sign players on the buyout market whose previous salary is below the non-taxpayer mid-level exception of roughly $12.8 million.
Those are the obvious names that we can be reasonably certain are available, or will be in the near future. Here’s where things get more complicated. It takes two to tango on a buyout. Typical procedure involves a veteran player offering to sacrifice a bit of salary, generally the amount they stand to gain on their new team, in order to buy their free agency. The teams benefit by saving money. The player benefits by picking a new home. Sometimes, though, a team simply doesn’t want to waive a player. Maybe they want to keep him for the rest of the year, or potentially re-sign him afterward. A player can theoretically entice the team by offering to sacrifice more money. It’s obviously rare that they do so. What player wants to forego salary?
But think about how enticing the Lakers must look right now. A player willing to bet on himself could get to Los Angeles and play major minutes with Doncic and James. Doing so might increase their market value ahead of their next foray into free agency, giving t
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