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The Los Angeles Lakers have signed veteran forward Taurean Prince to kick off free agency.
The Lakers use their biannual exception on Prince, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. The bi-annual exception serves as a means for a team to acquire a player whose value may surpass the minimum salary requirement but falls short of the mid-level range. As the name notes, it can only be used every other season.
The Lakers still have the full $12.4 million non-taxpayer midlevel exception to work with. They can either sign one player with that or split it between multiple.
Prince did not have his $7.4 million option picked up by the Minnesota Timberwolves earlier in the week, making him an unrestricted free agent. Prince found out he was going to be searching for a new team through social media.
“Sheesh, appreciate the heads up Woj,” Prince tweeted in response to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s initial report.
Taurean Prince Played Important Role With T-Wolves
Prince played in 54 games last season, with the Timberwolves, missing some time with a shoulder injury. He carved out a solid role off the bench, playing 22 minutes per game, averaging 9.1 points and 2.4 rebounds. He shot 46.7 percent from the field and 38.1 from beyond the arc.
While he’s not the biggest name, Prince should fit in nicely to the Lakers rotation and be a key voice in the locker room.
“Prince played an important role with the Wolves over the last two seasons, hitting open 3-pointers when the ball found him, giving coach Chris Finch a versatile defender who could guard multiple positions and solidifying himself as one of the team’s veteran voices in the locker room,” Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic wrote prior to free agency opening up.
Prince previously has spent time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks.
Lakers Intend to Keep Core Together
.@davemcten says the Lakers are prepared to extend a four-year offer to Austin Reaves as soon as free agency opens.
Prince fits what the Lakers were trying to do in free agency. LA wanted to add some key role players while keeping their core intact.
“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,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said.
The Lakers said goodbye to two players in Mo Bamba and Malik Beasley. Bamba was set to make $10.3 million next season but was waived. Beasley had his $16.5 million contract option declined.
The Lakers will have to do some work to retain restricted free agents Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura.
On the Reaves front, the Lakers are willing to do whatever it takes to keep him around. McMenamin reported that he would have a four-year, $52 million deal on the table from the Lakers once free agency opened up. That’s the max the Lakers can offer Reaves but they have the ability to match any other deal Reaves gets. They plan to do so and will wait until the July 6 deadline to do so, which will hold up competing teams’ cap space.
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Lakers Sign Former Timberwolves Forward to Kick off Free Agency