LA Lakers Season Preview: The NBA Champions LA Lakers will be looking to do a repeat of last year. The restart obviously went better for the Lakers than it did anyone else. They won their 17th NBA title in the 2019-20 NBA season. Here is our Season Analysis for the LA Lakers. You can also find the updated roster, player salaries, and the key matches.
The champions will face the most abbreviated offseason with a gap of just 71 days between games. The good news is that LeBron James and Anthony Davis have signed new deals with the LA Lakers.
James signed a two-year contract extension, while Davis agreed to a new five-year max contract. That keeps the Lakers’ two best players in purple and gold till at least 2022-23.
The LA Lakers have parted ways with Rajon Rondo, Danny Green, and Dwight Howard in the NBA 2020-21 offseason. The Lakers were overly reliant on LeBron James to create their scoring chances last season.
First day of training camp ☑️
On to the next one. pic.twitter.com/HHRVEHvHHA— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 7, 2020
The new addition, Dennis Schroder will take some of that pressure of James, principally in a regular-season where the Lakers will not want to extravagantly rely on their veteran star coming after a short break.
For the NBA 2020-21 season, LA Lakers have Anthony Davis as is a re-signed Markieff Morris and young forward Kyle Kuzma. At the center spot, the Lakers discarded JaVale McGee in a trade with Cleveland, and let Dwight Howard leave as a free agent.
In their place, Rob Pelinka signed Sixth Man of the Year winner Montrezl Harrell and veteran big man Marc Gasol.
LA Lakers roster and player salaries
| LA Lakers Players | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 |
| Caldwell-Pope, Kentavious | $ 12,073,020.00 | $ 13,038,862.00 | $ 14,004,703.00 |
| Caruso, Alex | $ 2,750,000.00 | ||
| Davis, Anthony | |||
| Dudley, Jared | |||
| Gasol, Marc | $ 2,564,753.00 | $ 2,692,991.00 | |
| Harrell, Montrezl | $ 9,258,000.00 | $ 9,720,900.00 | |
| Horton-Tucker, Talen | $ 1,517,981.00 | $ 1,869,178.00 | |
| James, LeBron | $ 39,219,565.00 | $ 41,002,273.00 | |
| Kuzma, Kyle | $ 3,562,178.00 | $ 5,282,710.00 | |
| Matthews, Wesley | $ 3,623,000.00 | ||
| McKinnie, Alfonzo | $ 1,762,796.00 | $ 1,910,860.00 | $ 2,165,298.00 |
| Morris, Markieff | $ 1,620,564.00 | ||
| Schröder, Dennis | $ 16,000,000.00 |
LA Lakers players: On the wing, Los Angeles lost a lot with Green and Avery Bradley went away. Green will be replaced by Wesley Matthews. Matthews’ shooting and ability to defend bigger wings should be a nice fit.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is coming off a marvelous playoff run and was re-signed. Avery Bradley sat out the restart but was a principal contributor during the regular season. His absence will be made up for by Caldwell-Pope and with more minutes from Alex Caruso.
They also know what they can do in the playoffs, afforded the main rotation players get there healthy. That may mean a small slide in the standings while keeping their eye on the main prize later in the summer.
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