In some respects, the Lakers’ offseason should be fairly straightforward. Once LeBron James stops pretending that he’s considering retiring, he figures to sign another two-year deal with a second-year player option, which could wind up being his final NBA contract. Beyond that, the Lakers already have most of their players signed through 2025-26 at least.
Dorian Finney-Smith could become a free agent by declining his $15.4 million player option, and the Lakers will need to discuss an extension with Luka Dončić this summer as well. Beyond that, their only real intrigue is at the bottom of the roster.
The Lakers have a $2.35 million team option on Jordan Goodwin, whom they converted from a two-way contract to a standard deal in March. If they pick up said option, Goodwin’s salary will be fully non-guaranteed until Jan. 10. Meanwhile, Shake Milton’s $3 million contract is fully non-guaranteed until July 20.
Both of those deals are slightly higher than veteran-minimum contracts (roughly $2.3 million for anyone with two-plus years of NBA experience), although Goodwin’s is only about $53,000 more. That difference is negligible enough — and Goodwin made enough of a late-season impact — that the Lakers figure to pick up their team option on him unless they’re desperate for roster spots.
Milton’s roster spot may be far less secure. He averaged 11.5 minutes per game in 30 games with the Lakers during the regular season, but he only saw the floor during garbage time in their first round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers have plenty of guard depth between Dončić, Austin Reaves, Gabe Vincent and Goodwin (if they retain him), which doesn’t leave an obvious role for Milton when they’re at full strength.
After establishing himself as a steady reserve during his five-year tenure with the Philadelphia 76ers, Milton has since bounced between five different teams over the past two seasons. The 28-year-old might not have done enough to convince the Lakers to spend an extra $700,000 to keep him rather than waiving him and signing someone else to a one-year, veteran-minimum deal.
The main reason to keep Milton around instead of waiving him for a new free-agent signing would be if the Lakers needed to aggregate his contract in a trade for salary-matching purposes. Anyone whom they sign in free agency this offseason won’t be eligible for a trade until Dec. 15 at the earliest, whereas Milton is already trade-eligible. Aggregating his deal would hard-cap them at the second apron, although they likely have no interest in crossing that threshold either way.
The NBA did change how non-guaranteed contracts count in trades starting with the 2017 collective bargaining agreement. Prior to then, even the non-guaranteed portion of a contract would count as outgoing salary for salary-matching purposes. In other words, the Lakers could have traded Milton, have him count as $3 million in outgoing salary even if his contract wasn’t guaranteed, and his new team could have waived him without being left with a dead cap hit.
The 2017 CBA closed that loophole by only counting guaranteed salary as outgoing salary in trades. So, if the Lakers wanted to keep Milton to use in a trade, they’d have to guarantee whatever portion of his contract needed to satisfy the league’s salary-matching rules.
Since the guarantee dates for Milton and Goodwin are well after the majority of free agency will be over, the Lakers don’t have to decide on their futures right way. They can see how the draft and the early waves of free agency play out to determine whether they need extra salary for any trades.
Expect them to pick up their team option on Goodwin to give themselves extra flexibility in that regard. If they can’t find a taker for Milton by July 20 or need to clear a roster spot before then, he might be a goner.
