What’s next for Los Angeles Lakers after signing LeBron James to extension?

The Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James have come to terms on a two year max deal worth $104 million. LeBron is staying in LA, which is what both parties wanted, but what comes next for the Lakers?

Bronny and LeBron teaming up

Once we saw the Lakers take Bronny James we knew it was just a matter of time before LeBron was going to resign with the team he won an NBA title with in the 2020 Bubble. The league’s all-time leading scorer had stated for years he intended to play with his son Bronny before he retired, so when the Lakers took James with the 55th pick in the NBA Draft, it ensured LeBron’s future at the Crypto.com Arena.

It took a few days before the Lakers and LeBron put pen to paper. The free agent market opened on Monday, July 1, and in that time there were a couple of big names that signed deals with teams around the league. It was reported that LeBron was willing to take a pay cut to bring a star that would help the Lakers compete in the Western Conference.

That star the Lakers were hoping to sign never came, and as a result LeBron ended up signing a two year max deal worth $103.9 million. That’s nearly $52 million a year that the Lakers are going to have to pay their four-time NBA champion, so where does that leave the Lakers in terms of salary space, and ability to bring in other players?

LA over second apron

At the moment LA are currently $1.1 million the second apron and $11.9 million over the first apron. What that means if you aren’t up to date with the new jargon in the NBA, it means the Lakers are basically handcuffed to the team they have right now.

There isn’t a whole lot of extra money to go shopping for players to bring in during free agency so the Lakers might be starting the season with a strikingly similar team that finished eighth in the Western Conference and got knocked out of the first round by the Denver Nuggets.

LA is going to have to shave some cash off their roster just to be with in the salary cap dictated by the new collective bargaining agreement. That will be their priority over the next few months, and then they might consider making a trade later in the offseason or in the trade deadline midseason.