What Does LeBron James' Contract Mean For Lakers CBA Restrictions?

How will the Lakers plans be changed by his contract?

Much of the offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers has been about how the team plans to upgrade the roster. But so far, the Lakers haven't done anything other than re-sign Max Christie and LeBron James.

It's been a slow-moving market for the Lakers thus far but the team still has ways to address problems across the team. However, with the new contract of James, the Lakers are hampered a little bit.

He signed a two-year contract that is worth $101.355 million, taking a small pay cut to keep Los Angeles out of the second-apron category. This allows the Lakers a little flexibility to build out the roster but it also means that they do have some restrictions.

According to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Lakers are now limited to the first-apron restrictions after the contract of James. This means that they can't do certain items and are not allowed to take back more salary in any trades.

“But with James accepting a slight reduction, the Lakers are only limited to first-apron restrictions, which include not being able to acquire a player via sign-and-trade, not being able to use more than the taxpayer midlevel exception (worth approximately $5.2 million), not being allowed to use a pre-existing trade exception or taking back additional salary in a trade, among several other restrictions.”

James did the Lakers a favor by taking a little bit less on his deal so the team needs to reward that by adding in more talent. As currently constructed, the Lakers aren't a title team so there is still work to be done.

Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka has his work cut out for him going forward but he has shown the ability to build championship-level teams in the past. It's a make-or-break offseason for Los Angeles, otherwise, it will be more of the same come playoff time next season.

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