The Los Angeles Lakers are hoping to be major players heading into the summer of 2018 but in order to do that they need to relinquish some big money contracts. Unfortunately for them, teams aren’t willing to take on those expensive veterans just to be nice. It appears that LA has come around and made a trio of youngsters; Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr and Jordan Clarkson; available for trade.
Following comes from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The Los Angeles Lakers, needing to shed salary for summer free agency, had been hopeful of waiting until the end of the season to move Jordan Clarkson — owed $26 million beyond this season — but there’s a mutual desire to find something sooner than later. The Lakers have made it clear that Clarkson, Julius Randle and Larry Nance are available.
Both Nance and Randle are still on their rookie deals with Randle is in his final year and Nance still has two years remaining. Clarkson is in the second year of a four-year, $50 million contract. For salary reasons alone, Clarkson is the player who the Lakers will most likely trade with Randle close behind him. It’s really unlikely that the Lakers, a team looking to rid themselves of salary, will enter a bidding war for Randle when he enters restricted free agency this summer.
