Plan B if the Lakers don't land Bruce Brown, Brook Lopez or Donte DiVincenzo

Yes, the Lakers could still utilize the exceptions they have at their disposal, but a real argument can be made not to.

So, when the Lakers waived Mo Bamba and elected not to pick up Malik Beasley’s team option, they had real confidence in their ability to sign Bruce Brown away from the Denver Nuggets for their full non-taxpayer midlevel exception ($12.4M). What they didn’t anticipate was Indiana diving into the pool of teams interested in Brown with a potential $20M offer that would put an immediate halt to the Lakers’ plan A this summer.

Alrighty. How ‘bout Brook Lopez? League sources indicate a return to Milwaukee as the likeliest outcome as of right now.

Crap. What about Donte DiVincenzo? Well, per reports, he’s expected to sign in New York to reunite with college teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart on the Knicks first chance he gets.

Uh… Then what? Maybe split the NTMLE between a couple useful players who aren’t quite worth all of it, themselves? Well, because of how many teams have access to those exceptions, it’s looking like that market will be inflated and some guys who probably don’t warrant $12.4M will get it, thus hard-capping whichever team they sign with.

Hard-capping myself for Eric Gordon, for example, is not something I’m interested in.

Plan B shouldn’t be simply sliding down the list of free agents hoping someone takes your offer. No, I’d rather do what the Lakers have said they were prepared to do and actually run next year’s team back, cross the first tax apron, and give myself as many expiring trade pieces at the deadline as I can.

It would look something like this:

• Re-sign Austin Reaves to his maximum, 4-year, $56M contract. (Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports is indicating he might take a 3+1 deal with the fourth year being a player option and I’ll echo that has been on the table for his camp all offseason as well)

• Re-sign Rui Hachimura to a multi-year deal starting at around $18M

• Re-sign D’Angelo Russell to the two-year $20M deal (second year team option) I’ve been talking about for weeks

• Try to convince Lonnie Walker IV to take the $7.8M he could get that actually sits higher than the current mini-midlevel this year

• Bring back Malik Beasley at a number high enough to convince him to stick around on a one-year deal. Hell, make it a 1+1 team option, too, if that’s what it takes to get him to forget you didn’t pick up the option. Let’s say, $10M

• Use the $5M mini midlevel on Mo Bamba, who, for what it’s worth, I’m told wants to be back

• Fill out as many spots with veteran’s minimum contracts as you need

  • So far, it sounds like Cam Reddish is likely on the way on a minimum deal

  • The Lakers reportedly have interest in Jevon Carter or Shake Milton if they lose Dennis Schröder, as they could in this scenario

  • Speaking of Schröder, maybe you make a wink wink deal with him to stay at the vet min but promise to take care of him next year (the Bobby Portis situation)

  • I can also confirm Matt Moore of The Action Network’s report that they’re interested in Kevin Love at the minimum

  • Yuta Watanabe is a little harder to pin down but there is reported interest that I believe

• If you absolutely must save a little extra, convert Colin Castleton from the two-way contract he’s on to a cheap multi-year deal as you did with Austin Reaves

So if you combine all that with the money the Lakers already have in LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt and Max Christie — plus the rookie contracts they’ll hand out to Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis, the Lakers can enter next year above the first apron ($172M), but below the second ($182.5M).

My rough estimate sits at $177.8M, depending on how many vet min guys are brought in.

More importantly, they’d have more options over the course of the year to improve the roster than if they just hand out exceptions to guys who probably don’t deserve neither the number they’ll get or to be the reason you’re hard-capped next season.

To me, and I’m biased because I was never really in on everything the Lakers would have to do to pursue Brown in the first place, this is the most sensible path forward if they don’t sign Brown. They aren’t pot committed to operating below the luxury tax. They can still bring guys back and actually refocus on continuity as Rob Pelinka has indicated they would.

Once again, as we saw with Kawhi Leonard, the Lakers thought they had a player lined up, and didn’t. That time, Pelinka’s plan B resulted in a championship. If that’s still the focus, you can’t just hand out bloated contracts and trade away potential flexibility because you can. No, I’d rather spend more on the team that got you to the Western Conference Finals last year and see what you can get on the trade market.