Currently we only have 8 players signed: Shaquille O'Neal Kobe Bryant Rick Fox Devean George Derek Fisher Stanislav Medvedenko Kareem Rush Jannero Pargo Our total salary is $55,208,358
you guys only have 8 players and your that much over the cap :shock:. maybe the Lakers should make a few trades.
the new cap figure has not been announced yet. last year the cap figure was $ 40,271,000. keep in mind, this is a soft cap and the lakers are allowed to be over the cap with some players because of the larry bird exception. we still have our MLE (which is 4.9M) to sign a free agent and the rest of our players will probably be signed at whatever their league minimums are, based on their years in the nba.
i'm not giving up on devean george yet. i still think he is going to be a solid player, but i also think the triangle offense isn't good for his style. george has a ton of physical ability and is one of our best defenders. we had no choice, but to match the offer and resign him, we have put a lot of time and resources into devean, and he's very close with kobe. rick fox on the otherhand should retire. he is far past his prime and simply doesn't have the quickness at the SG/SF spot. he is a smart defender, but he was dragging ass last season and i don't see him getting any better. we could definately use his salary to sign a better player. i'm hoping the lakers can get eric piatkowski to play some minutes at the sg/sf spot. he can replace tracy murray and he should be willing to sign for the league minimum, 1.5M i believe is the actual figure. we need his outside shooting!!! we need our young players to step it up. rush, slava, & pargo all need to improve and become solid players off the bench. we have 7 spots to fill, so it will be interesting to see who jumps aboard. i expect madsen to be resigned, and possibly horry. walker, murray, & shaw are likely gone.
