The LA Lakers are coming into the season with a number of new faces and come 2015 the team could have even more, as names like Rajon Rondo, Greg Monroe, Kemba Walker and Marc Gasol all could be on the market and they are potential targets for Los Angeles, especially if Steve Nash or Jeremy Lin are gone next season after their deals expire.
According to Pro Basketball Talk, the Lakers will have a nice amount of cap space coming into the offseason next year with Steve Nash and Jeremy Lin coming off the books and that opens things up for the team to sign players. Rajon Rondo will be the top name on the market if he doesn't sign an extension and as of right now it appears that he won't be signing one this season. Greg Monroe is on a one year deal and also could be on the market and those are two names that could fit into the mix for the Lakers.
Rondo is coming into the season looking to stay healthy after coming back last year from ACL surgery, while Monroe is looking to stay healthy into free agency after opting not to sign a long term deal with the Pistons. Kemba Walker will be a restricted free agent as well and while he likely will be staying with the Hornets, he is a name that the Lakers and other teams will look at. Ricky Rubio also is in that mix as an RFA and with the way the Timberwolves have been looking at things, there is a good chance Rubio ends up elsewhere like Kevin Love did. Rubio may want a max deal and right now the two sides have not been able to come to a contract extension and they have about a month before the deadline to get it done ends.
Pro Basketball Talk writes that the Lakers considered signing Eric Bledsoe to an offer sheet, but that would have kept them from making other moves like adding Boozer. The team also added Wes Johnson, Ryan Kelly and Xavier Henry back this weekend and they likely thought it wouldn't be worth it to sign Bledsoe to a sheet if the Suns were just going to match it. The Lakers had the cap space even after trading for Jeremy Lin this offseason and other teams like the Houston Rockets or Milwaukee Bucks could have been options for Bledsoe, as they have the space to make an offer sheet, but now he is staying in Phoenix
The Lakers had a terrible season in 2013-14 and they are hoping that Kobe Bryant can come back healthy after being out all of last year. The team is still a year or two away from being a winning team and now they have Julius Randle to build around and they also plan to target LaMarcus Aldridge next summer. The team will have money to spend and there are a number of options that will be out there and it depends on how things play out this season for the Lakers and other teams that will dictate who goes after those players the hardest.
