Anyone who thought the Lakers would play it safe during free agency and bide their time until next summer was apparently wrong. So, most of us were wrong.
Shortly after the Lakers selected Julius Randle with the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, general manager Mitch Kupchak was asked about free agency and how aggressive the team plans to be. His answer left little room for doubt.
"We're prepared," he said, via ESPN Los Angeles' Dave McMenamin. "If any of those players do want to make a move, we're prepared. And if we get word, when we're allowed to get word, we will go all out."
By "any of those players," Kupchak means Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Those are this summer's hottest free-agent commodities. Though the Lakers have preached patience during and after a nightmarish 2013-14 campaign, their stance on immediate action has softened lately.
Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported prior to the draft that the Lakers planned on reviving past free-agency dreams:
With LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony officially opting out of their contracts, multiple teams have begun the process of exploring roster moves that would create sufficient salary-cap space to sign 2014's marquee free agents in tandem this summer, according to sources close to the situation.
[...]
The Los Angeles Lakers, meanwhile, had begun exploring such machinations even before the opt outs of James and Anthony had become known, according to ESPN.com's Ramona Shelburne.
Less than a year ago, the Lakers were plotting an identical pursuit, according to Windhorst and colleague Ramona Shelburne.
Said hopes gradually became more and more unrealistic. James didn't seem like he would sign with the Lakers just to run up Kobe Bryant's ring count, and the cost of pairing Anthony with Bryant a...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
