3 Trades the Los Angeles Lakers could offer the Atlanta Hawks for Trae Young
No LeBron James or Austin Reaves?
Lakers superstar LeBron James suggested that he could consider retirement this offseason in the immediate aftermath of being eliminated from the postseason. And the Lakers do not have to keep him after this season fell short making it the second “early” exit from the playoffs in three trips out of five seasons.
Still, it’s hard to see any way a deal for Young includes James, who turns 39 years old in December.
Related Story. Trae Young has NSFW reaction to LeBron James. light
But could the Hawks replace, say, Russell in one of the earlier deals for breakout sensation Austin Reaves?
It’s complicated.
Reaves oftentimes looked like the Lakers’ second-best player during the Western Conference Finals. He averaged 13.0 points per game during the regular season and upped that production to 16.9 points per game in the playoffs.
The 24-year-old former undrafted free agent will be a restricted free agent this summer.
The Lakers can only offer Reaves somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million, per Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report. But another team could very well offer him a backloaded contract worth up to “$98.7 million” with balloon payments up to “$36.9 million” as soon as the third year of a four-year pact and there are expected to be plenty of suitors.
Atlanta will not be able to come up with that kind of cash outright so the only remotely reasonable way they could get him back in the long shot that Young is dealt is if he takes the Lakers’ outright offer which seems quite unlikely as does the idea of the Hawks star getting moved at all.
Next. Hawks urged to ‘unload’ assets for 2x All-Star. dark
Even if Young is not dealt (which is still where all signs point), this will be an interesting offseason indeed.