Los Angeles Lakers Receive: G/F Jeremy Lamb
Indiana Pacers Receive: C Marc Gasol, G Wesley Matthews (via sign-and-trade), LAL 2023 2nd Round Pick
Things can get really complicated in terms of the Los Angeles Lakers looking to add a contract that is larger than a minimum salary via a trade, but they could hypothetically create enough salary going out to Indiana if they were to include Marc Gasol ($2.6M) and Wesley Matthews via a sign-and-trade.
Matthews is now 34-years-old and is still a free agent, but the Lakers could potentially sign him to a larger deal than the minimum and then trade him in a deal with Gasol to the Pacers to make the finances work in a trade centered around Jeremy Lamb.
It is possible that they could look to get another team involved in the deal as well to save on taxes, so it is possible that Devontae Cacok or Jared Dudley could also be included in a sign-and-trade to free up cap space, but it is unlikely that any team would be interested in either of these guys.
Since Lamb is owed $10.5M during the 2021-22 season and that number is not going to change, plus the fact that the Lakers are already well over the tax line for this upcoming season, they would need to come close to matching Lamb’s salary in order for them not to see their tax bill rise by close to 100%.
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Essentially, the Lakers could see their tax bill rise by $30M if they were to acquire Jeremy Lamb for Marc Gasol, which is why finding a way to send out equal salaries would be the best case scenario for Los Angeles in order to save taxpayer money. This is a trade though that we may not see happen until sometime during the 2021-22 season.
With the Pacers signing Torrey Craig this offseason, as well as drafting Chris Duarte, they have no need for Jeremy Lamb anymore, so he will be traded at some point, but he is coming off various injuries and the Lakers may not want to invest a lot of money in him right away.
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J. Michael of the Indianapolis Star reports that much like the Victor Oladipo situation with the Rockets, Los Angeles may want to see Lamb play first and see him remain healthy before making a decision to trade for him and increase their overall tax bill for the upcoming season.
When money is involved, trades get very complicated and on the Lakers-end of things, they really do not have much money to play around with at this point.
