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By Miles Wray
In 67 seasons of Lakers basketball—going back to 1948–49, when George Mikan led the Minneapolis Lakers to the Basketball Association of America title—the team has never produced a worse winning percentage than it did this season. The team stumbled to a 21–61 finish (that’s a 25.6 percent winning percentage), paying a league-high salary to Kobe Bryant (35 games played) while watching a motley crew of 10-day-contract guys finish out the season. It’s been two seasons since the Lakers have had a winning record, and three since they’ve won a playoff series.
And still it’s assumed, just like every year, that the Lakers will be huge players on this summer’s free agent market. Even before the season ended, the team was tied to marquee superstars like Rajon Rondo and Kevin Love.
The truth is, though, that if the Lakers signed a big-name free agent this summer, it would be their first big-name free agent signing in a long, long time. All of the big-name players that have been with the franchise in recent memory—be it Jeremy Lin, Steve Nash, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, even Lamar Odom—were acquired via trade.
The list of the Lakers’ most expensive free agents (with “most expensive” serving as a proxy here for “best,” or “most sought-after”) over the last five summers seems impossible: they’re all role players. Fine role players, sure, but still role players. Here they are, listed with the years and total salary they received:
Last summer, the Lakers’ two-year, $18 million investment in Hill—who entered the free agent market before re-signing with the team—represented their second-largest free agent investment over the last five seasons. There have even been two summers where the Lakers spent more on a new head coach than they did on any free agent. In 2010, the team signed Mike Brown to a four-year, $18 million deal, just out-earning Steve Blake. Then, in 2012, the team made a rushed mid-season signing of Mike D’Antoni for three years, $12 million—a salary that the Lakers had to pay in full this season even though D’Antoni was relieved of his duties last spring.
This is the behavior of a small-market franchise. In fact, just last summer, teams like San Antonio (Boris Diaw: four years, $28 million), Orlando (Channing Frye: four years, $32 million), and Utah (Gordon Hayward: four years, $62.9 million) all outspent the Lakers’ largest spree.
Incredibly, the Lakers’ record of free agent restraint goes back even before 2010. In the summer of 2009, they actually signed two free agents for over $30 million: Metta World Peace for five years, $34 million, and Lamar Odom for four years, $33 million. The two free agents before that to be signed for over $30 million were Luke Walton in 2007 (six years, $30 million) and Vladimir Radmanovic in 2006 (five years, $31 million).
Now, these were all shrewd moves—well, maybe not the Walton contract, but for the most part, they were all shrewd moves. The Lakers don’t win their championships without World Peace’s defensive prowess, or Odom’s flummoxing versatility. But the point here is that the Lakers are continually expected to sign the big, big names in part because it feels like they’ve done so before.
In the last 20 years—going back before the start of Mitch Kupchak’s 15-year tenure—the Lakers have only signed two free agents for over $50 million. The first was Bryant in 2004, who briefly entered the free agent market before being brought back by the team for a true mega-deal: seven years, $136.4 million. The biggest signing before that came in 1996, when the team signed Shaquille O’Neal away from the Orlando Magic for seven years, $120 million—a sum that is pretty huge now, but was flabbergasting back in ’96.
Of course, just because it’s been forever since the Lakers signed a big free agent doesn’t mean they can’t go out and do so this summer. With contracts for Steve Nash ($9.7 million) and Jeremy Lin ($8.3 million) coming off the books, the Lakers have only $48.6 million committed to next year’s team, providing them enough space under the cap to sign that marquee name. At the end of next season, contracts for Bryant ($25 million) and Hill ($9 million) come off the books—in fact, the Lakers only have Young and Julius Randle under contract for the 2016–17 season, for a combined total of $8.7 million. This team definitely has the cap space and the resources to sign the biggest of stars.
The bigger question, though, is: Unless a player is getting way overpaid, why would anybody want to sign with the Lakers? To me, it makes total sense that Jordan Hill has re-signed with the team twice in free agency: he’s something of a below-average power forward, and the two-year, $18 million deal he agreed to last summer is the exact same deal that All-Star power forward Paul Millsap signed with the Atlanta Hawks. The Lakers have no defined personality as a team, a recent history of disastrous losing seasons, and a brooding superstar in Bryant who at this point is more likely to antagonize his teammates than his opponents. The only way any player would come to this team is if the Lakers’ offer far, far exceeds every other team’s bid.
So, you know what, maybe that does mean that Rondo and Love are likely to sign with the Lakers this summer. After joining new teams, both about-to-be-free-agents have dropped the worst seasons of their careers here in 2014–15, and more cost-conscious teams around the league know there are more efficient ways to spend their money. This summer the Lakers just might break their streak and sign the biggest names of the summer. Just don’t expect them to be playing in June anytime soon.
Historical transaction information via Pro Sports Transactions. Lakers payroll information via Basketball Reference.
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