The Los Angeles Lakers made the bold decision to strip down their roster. They only return two starters from last season, and the bench looks a lot different. After being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs, they decided to make some drastic choices.
While they still have to determine who the fifth starter will be, it was clear they made some risky choices. Letting LeBron James walk is one of those decisions. Dan Woike of The Athletic determined which two moves were the riskiest they made in the offseason.
The Two Riskiest Offseason Moves Are Part of the Lakers’ Core
According to Woike, the second-riskiest move was signing Sandro Mamukelashvili to a four-year deal worth $52 million. That is by far the most money he has ever made in a single contract. His defense is the main reason why Woike isn’t sold on his value to the Lakers.
“But — and there’s a but — they worry about the overall defensive impact. They worry about the length of the deal and the player option tacked onto the end. They worry about Mamukelashvili’s impact as a backup center versus his impact as a power forward. And they worry about a really tough seven-game series with the Cleveland Cavaliers where he struggled to impact winning,” Woike wrote.
Mamukelashvili averaged 11.2 points per game last season with the Raptors. He also shot just under 39 percent from beyond the 3-point line. However, Los Angeles struggled on the defensive end last season, and that is not his strong suit as a player.
Signing Mamukelashvili to this kind of deal indicates that he could be the starting power forward heading into next season. That means he must up his production in order to live up to the massive contract Los Angeles gave him.
New Starting Center Seen as Biggest LA Risk
Bringing in Walker Kessler is by far the biggest risk for the Lakers. That is because of what they traded to bring him in and the subsequent contract they had to give him. The Lakers traded two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps for him, then signed him to a deal worth $130 million over four years.
Woike is worried that Kessler has not played enough basketball to justify the massive price tag he commanded.
“But Kessler has played virtually no high-stakes basketball as an NBA player. He’s not been put in a position where he needs to be a near All-Star-level center or better to make the steep price the Lakers paid feel palatable. It was a necessary swing, but it was unquestionably the Lakers’ biggest. And the bigger the swing, the bigger the chance for a miss,” Woike writes.
If this Kessler move doesn’t work out, they could be hamstrung for quite a while. Another injury could cost Rob Pelinka his job, especially with a change in ownership.
Lakers’ Two Riskiest Offseason Moves Revealed