Lakers: Top 5 Mavericks Free Agents For Los Angeles
Today at American Airlines Center, your Los Angeles Lakers will be squaring off against Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks.
Beyond just Irving, Dallas actually has a lot of tantalizing free agents who will be hitting the market this summer at affordable prices. Let's take a look.
5. Justin Holiday
The new buyout market addition is a solid 3-and-D wing who can give LA a bit more optionality off the bench, and should be available at the veteran's minimum.
4. Markieff Morris
The ex-Lakers champ, who was signed to a minimum with the Brooklyn Nets this summer, was flipped to the Mavs along with Irving near the trade deadline. As a deep-bench reserve big on presumably another minimum deal, Morris could be fun for LA.
3. Dwight Powell
Powell, the Mavericks' starting center at present, is in the final season of a three-year, $33.2 million deal with Dallas and seems likely to command less than that this summer. Though he may be the third-best available free agent on the Mavericks, LA seems set with its current frontcourt rotation of starters Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis, plus reserves Rui Hachimura (a restricted free agent this summer) and Mo Bamba (on a non-guaranteed team option). So Powell only makes sense if Los Angeles opts to move on from one of its reserve bigs.
2. Christian Wood
Wood will probably fetch more money than he's worth on the open market this summer, as a defense-free big who will demand touches even when playing alongside better scoring options. He is the second-most talented among the Lakers' various free agents this summer, but for the price he commands (probably in the range of $12-20 million annually), he's not worth it for LA.
1. Kyrie Irving
Ugh. Irving is an incredible talent, but such an unreliable headache that he may be more trouble than he's worth. That may not stop the Lakers from pursuing him, but his addition would need to come at the expense of newly-added starter D'Angelo Russell.
The Lakers have plenty of extant free agent decisions on their current roster to make. Will they get in the mix for any of these Mavericks options?
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