Lakers Identified as Prime Destination for 4-Time NBA Champion

Getty Images LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers.

Draymond Green has hit the open market as a free agent and the Los Angeles Lakers are a team that could potentially get into the mix for the four-time NBA champion.

Green declined his $27.6 million player option earlier this offseason, allowing him to test the waters as an unrestricted free agent. He’s spent his entire career with the Golden State Warriors and returning to the only team he’s known is still a possibility.

However, the Lakers could make a run at Green, eyeing him as a third championship-level piece alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Bleacher Report listed the Lakers as one of five potential landing spots for Green in free agency.

“Draymond has publicly expressed his appreciation for LeBron James on enough occasions to make people wonder about a potential team-up. And though having both in a lineup with Anthony Davis would make things awfully cramped, it’s easy to be intrigued about the wealth of playmaking such a team would have,” Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey wrote. “LeBron and Green are two of the best passing forwards of all time, and unselfishness can mask a lot of flaws (maybe even a lack of shooting).”

Lakers Likely Don’t Have Resources to Add Draymond Green

Bailey also noted some obvious hurdles in signing Green, specifically the money it would take. Marcus Thompson of The Athletic projected the Warriors will offer Green a three-year contract in the range of $28-33 million annually.

“I think it’s three years, and I think that’s probably the cap,” Thompson said during an appearance on KNBR’s Papa & Lund Show. “I think the Warriors are going to try to sell him on, ‘You’re going to have to give us a little bit of money back so we can win a championship.’ Draymond has been in this situation at every point in his career where he’s taken a bit less than market value. So, I do feel like he may have to do that again.”

The Lakers would have to do some significant restructuring to fit Green into their equation, even after parting ways with Mo Bamba and Malik Beasley. It could potentially mean renouncing the rights to Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, who are expected to land new deals with the Lakers this offseason.

Green averaged 8.5 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.8 assists last season with the Warriors, clocking 31.5 minutes per game.

Lakers Intend to Keep Core Together

The Lakers did some major work at the trade deadline to reshape their roster and the results speak for themselves. The new-look Lakers punched their ticket to the postseason and made a run to the Western Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Denver Nuggets.

Lakers general manager previously called the trade deadline haul “pre-agency” and made it clear once again on June 27 that keeping the majority of their roster intact in the goal this offseason.

“We’re at the doorstep of free agency,” Pelinka said. “And we’ve been pretty clear since our last game with the success of making it to the Western Conference finals, we want to try our hardest to keep this core of guys together and also improve around the edges and on the margins to not only get back to where we were last year but hopefully take the next step and get into the NBA Finals.”

Some other names the Lakers have been linked to include Brook Lopez, Eric Gordon and Bruce Brown.