Lakers Insider Believes LA May Let 2 Trade Deadline Additions Walk in Free Agency

These players may be the odd men out in this offseason's roster crunch for the Lakers.

With the Lakers now staring at the offseason after being eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals, the team has some rather crucial decisions to make with D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Mo Bamba, Malik Beasley, Lonnie Walker, and Dennis Schroder set to hit free agency.

Obviously, they can't pay everybody so some familiar faces are probably gonna be on the way out.

According to The Athletic's Jovan Buha, he thinks that two players could be on their way out as part of a numbers game for the Lakers, as he told Michael Scotto on the HoopsHype Podcast.

"With the other two (Beasley and Bamba), ideally, the Lakers would love to keep them. But again, as we’re talking about money, $16.5 million for Beasley and $10.5 million for Bamba are figures I think that are too high for L.A. with what they’ll have to pay Austin, Rui, D’Angelo, and potentially Dennis. I think L.A. is looking at it like they can opt them in and trade them on draft night or down the road or decline Beasley’s options and waive Bamba." (via the HoopsHype Podcast)

Ultimately, letting Beasley and Bamba walk this offseason makes sense for the Lakers compared to their fellow free agents.

For as much potential as Bamba had when he first came into the league, he's been hampered by injuries and he was limited to just 12 total games for the Lakers this year, including the playoffs.

Concerning Beasley, while he played solid minutes off the bench at times in the regular season, he lost his spot in the rotation during the playoffs.

When it comes down to it, both are likely not worth their potential price tags this offseason and money that would go to them would likely be much better served by going Hachimura, Reaves, or Russell's ways.

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