Lakers ‘exploring pathways’ to shed salary to use taxpayer midlevel exception

The Lakers will have to get creative if they want to use their taxpayer midlevel exception and sign a rotation-level player.

The Lakers are in the heat of off-season basketball and have done little besides returning the core from last year.

With LeBron James taking less than the maximum, the franchise stays below the second apron and can use the midlevel exception.

The Lakers must shed some salary however, to make the $5.2 million exception available. That will require some tricky maneuvering by vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.

In his latest Substack newsletter, longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein discussed how the Lakers could make that happen.

The Lakers are known to be exploring pathways to shed some additional salary via trades to create sufficient wiggle room needed under the second apron to make use of their $5.2 million taxpayer midlevel exception. Yet even those kinds of moves likely require some form of second round draft capital attached and taking in a player via sign-and-trade, as a first apron team, is not permitted under the league’s new rules.

Time is money and the Lakers currently have little of both. They need to make some salary dump moves like Stein outlined.

Cam Reddish and Christian Wood are reportedly 'most likely' the players the Lakers will move in a trade.

Both have upsides and are still relatively young, but getting their numbers off the books would clear enough space to add an impactful player. Given their up-and-down performances last year, letting them go for someone else is worth the risk.

With many players who could've taken the midlevel exception signing to other teams, the longer they take to create that space, the fewer options they'll have once they are primed to make an acquisition.

Still, good options, like Gary Trent Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie, are available, so it's not too late to make a move to improve the Lakers' current situation.

Despite the lack of moves, LeBron still feels this team can be a contender for a championship.

If they can help Bron and Anthony Davis with a 3-and-D guard or a backup big, this summer could still be positive for the Lakers.

The organization may not have hit a home run and put themselves at the top of the Western Conference, but if they can knock down a couple of nice hits during these dog days of summer, they'll give themselves a chance of being in a better position to start the year this fall.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.