The Los Angeles Lakers will look to make moves during the NBA offseason to better their roster. Naming JJ Redick as the head coach, the next focus is for them to keep LeBron James around as he has a player option.
Julia Stumbaugh of Bleacher Report listed the Lakers’ top trade and free agent targets amid the Redick hire and James’ contract rumors, including Klay Thompson, the Golden State Warriors‘ free agent.
“The Lakers averaged the fewest three-point attempts of any NBA team during the 2023-24 regular season,” Stumbaugh wrote on June 20. “Would the team consider addressing that need with a shooter like Golden State Warriors veteran Klay Thompson, who ranked fourth in the league in three-pointers made last season?”
Stumbaugh added that despite his “dipped” production, his ability to hit the 3-point shot could entice the Lakers.
“Although his production dipped during his age-34 season to 17.9 points per game, Thompson’s presence behind the arc could be a draw for a Lakers team looking for more shot production from deep,” Stumbaugh wrote.
Warriors Reportedly Offered Thompson a 2-Year Deal
Thompson has played for the Golden State Warriors for his entire career but hits free agency this offseason. According to Tim McMahon on an episode of “The Hoop Collective” podcast, the Warriors offered Thompson a two-year deal.
“We’ve heard that it’s a two-year offer,” McMahon said to Brian Windhorst on June 20. “It’s as much about years as dollars in some of these cases.”
According to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, Thompson is seeking at least a three-year deal.
“League sources indicate he’s seeking an offer of at least three years,” Poole wrote on June 17.
The issue for the Los Angeles Lakers is the lack of cap space to land Thompson. They do have ways to get creative, but it’d be tough to land Thompson, given his potential contract.
Stephen A. Smith of ESPN said on June 17 that Thompson “would love to be in Los Angeles” but questioned the chances of it happening due to their cap space situation.
“Well, in a perfect world, Klay would love to be in Los Angeles,” Smith said on an episode of “First Take.” “We all know that. I’m talking about the Lakers. I mean, could you imagine?
“No space — they can’t do it,” Smith said. “But that’s where he’d love to be.”
How Thompson Would Help the Lakers
In a perfect world, the Los Angeles Lakers will re-sign James and have him and Anthony Davis running the show for another few seasons. If that does happen, they have the assets in first-round picks and young players to land other players in trades.
If Thompson and the Lakers were able to figure out a way for the money to work, the five-time All-Star could be the perfect piece. Even in a down year, for his standards, he shot 38.7% from 3-point range on nine attempts per game.
The Lakers didn’t have any player on their 2023-24 roster that took over 7.2 attempts per game, and only two players with more than five attempts per game shot higher than 40.0%.
The Los Angeles native would add a different look to a Lakers offense that averaged the seventh fewest made 3-pointers per game last year.
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