It's certainly not as crazy—or horrific—as it sounds.
Stuck in a quagmire that is a full-blown rebuild around one Kobe Bryant, general manager Mitch Kupchak has pulled out all the stops in the hopes of luring a big-name free agent to town, but even Carmelo Anthony is apparently out of the picture at this juncture, per Chris Palmer.
Entering the offseason after a 27-55 campaign and very little in the way of assets to move around or quality pieces to entice free agents (excuse them for not loving the idea of the soon-to-be 36-year-old Bryant), the struggles were quite easy to see coming—living on the reputation of the city alone, which has since been taken over by the "little brother" Clippers, wasn't going to work.
So it makes perfect sense that Kupchak and Co. are intent to take on bad contracts, gain assets and try again next offseason. Or, in more simplistic terms, help the Houston Rockets apparently get Chris Bosh by taking on Lin, according to ESPN's Jeff Goodman:
For Houston, moving Lin clears up the cap space to build an immediate contender, but the motivation for Los Angeles is certainly not as sexy. Lin represents in the neighborhood of an $8.3 million cap hit next season, per Spotrac, before hitting unrestricted free agency. That will continue to be the motivation for the Lakers throughout the rest of the offseason, as ESPN's Marc Stein alluded to before the deal:
At this point, with most of the major dominoes falling into place, this is the best possible thing the Lakers could have done in order to build a better foundation. A certain familiar Lakers name concurs with that notion:
For one, the team already has lottery pick Julius Randle for years to come. Two, more cash in 2015 means the Lakers can chase a bevy of impending unrestrict...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
