NEW Lakers Update - Report Reveals Deal Coming...

This is huge as in this new Lakers update, a report has just revealed that a deal could be coming for the Lakers to go acquire their future starting forward for this upcoming season and welcome to Lakers Digest here. My name is Hunter Pitkoff, where we cover everything surrounding your Los Angeles Lakers, whether it be different rumors, reports, breaking news, as well as different trades and signings, this is the place to be for your purple and gold. And look, we appreciate all the love and support we've been getting throughout the summer here, but still seven out of ten of you watching our videos are not subscribed. You're already watching it. You're already up to date. Just do that last part to really show your loyalty and hit the subscribe button so you don't miss a thing here on this channel. And yes, it has been a crazy summer for the Los Angeles Lakers. They have completely revamped this team, but still there is work to be done. And of course, it has been the looming cloud over the Los Angeles Lakers over this last month or so here in terms of who they're going to add and we are inching closer and closer to that finally becoming a reality here as Jonathan Kaminga. Yes, the name we've been talking about beating around the bush. I shouldn't really say that kind of being the dead horse if you want to call it that since probably middle to end of July up until now and we finally have perhaps a report that could indicate that they might be one step closer to actually turning this into a reality here. So Kurt Halen, I hope I'm saying his name right from NBC Sports, reporting that there are surely a lot of factors Kaminga is mulling while deciding which team he prefers to join and one of them obviously is the role he would play with either squad as he reports that Kaminga reportedly sees the Lakers as a better fit for him in terms of his role and really the two teams right now that are in the running for Kaminga following the Peyton Watson signing trade are the Lakers and the Timberwolves. So Halen saying that Kaminga reportedly likes the idea of playing for the Lakers who would start him at the four as a better fit. So this is telling us that if Jonathan Kaminga had his pick from a basketball perspective he would rather play with the Lakers here as he views himself as a better fit there than the Timberwolves or any other option right now currently available. Also saying that the Lakers and Hawks are talking signing trade again after talks stalled for several weeks now with Jaden Hardy reportedly in the conversation making six million dollars a season while previously that was Jared Vanderbilt at about twelve and a half million dollars. So this definitely is a very interesting development in the Jonathan Kaminga sweepstakes because he is showing now perhaps according to these reports that the Lakers are the team he wants to go for which does make sense on paper but it's the fact that the Lakers now are actually reportedly throwing in Jaden Hardy instead of Jared Vanderbilt which makes a massive massive difference. He's making less money. He's also on a one-year deal it's a one-on-one but team option on the second one whereas Jared Vanderbilt is on a one-on-one with a player option and he's definitely going to opt into that player option the following season. So that means that Jaden Hardy the fact that they are willing to move off of him means that the Lakers might be more in business and perhaps that is intriguing the Atlanta Hawks now more but that brings us to our next point here is agreeing to terms. How can the Lakers get this done? Like we said perhaps offering Jaden Harvey would make more sense. They'd also have to give up less draft picks most likely to make that happen as Jaden Harvey is making a lot less money than Jared Vanderbilt and he's not as negative of a contract as Jared Vanderbilt is so that obviously makes it a bit more interesting. But look is this a player that the Lakers should be making a sign-in trade for because in terms of the idea of it yes, it makes sense, but the reality of the situation is with the sign-in trade whoever you're signing and trading for that player has to agree to at least three guaranteed years. That does not include any sort of player option that Rob Palenka loves to slap on a deal. No, it has to be three years guaranteed money and so for Jonathan Kaminga yes, he wants that security but the big reason why there's been such a holdup is because of the years and the amount of money Kaminga wants, right? If the Lakers wanted Jonathan Kaminga that badly he would be a Laker by now. It's not that they don't want Kaminga at all they want Jonathan Kaminga on their own terms. That has been the big holdup throughout this whole thing. Kaminga wants more money. The Lakers don't want to give it to him and so really no team in the NBA wants to give Kaminga the money he's asking for. I mean that's really just been the reality of the situation. This is the same thing that happened last offseason with the Warriors so perhaps either Jonathan Kaminga needs a wake-up call and or his agent needs to do a much better job reeling things in here because it has been pretty brutal in terms of what Kaminga uh-huh is how his free agency has gone each of the past two seasons. Now he does not even have the restrictive free agency to blame. Now he's an unrestricted free agent. And so this is a lot of his camp's own doing here. But look, Kaminga is a talented player, right? This is somebody who has great size and athleticism for the wing position. The Lakers need youth and athleticism on this team. That is what they've been going for this season and Jonathan Kaminga checks off those boxes. He's entering his sixth year in the NBA, but he's going to be turning 24 later this year. So he's still very young, very raw, and has a lot of potential. So that is the good thing if you take a swing on someone like Kaminga. However, this is not necessarily a calculated swing. The same thing it was for like a DeAndre Ayton because DeAndre Ayton was bought out. He only accepted a one-in-one deal worth eight million dollars per year. That's not a lot of money for a guy like DeAndre Ayton. For Jonathan Kaminga, you're probably still gonna have to pay eight figures. You probably still have to pay at least 10 mil a year and the Lakers, they offered him a two-year 20 million dollar deal. That's 10 per year and they said no. But now in a sign-and-trade for Kaminga, you have to offer him three years. So the Lakers have to be ready to commit to someone like that for a long-term deal and you hope it's a team-friendly deal so that they could potentially move him if in fact, it does not work out. And the reason why the Lakers can't just offer that minimum salary, maybe they could, maybe it works. The reason why though is because the Minnesota Timberwolves still have their room exception available. So they can offer Jonathan Kaminga six million dollars a year right now if they want to, which of course would be more than the vet minimum of about three, four million dollars that the Lakers could offer him. So he'd get more money from Minnesota off that. So the Lakers really the only way right now to get him to a price point that both sides, I guess, are okay with is in fact, to go sign him for sorry, do a sign-and-trade for Kaminga. So that would be the path forward for the Lakers. And so Jayden Hardy is making again six million on a one-on-one team option. Whereas someone like Vanderbilt is making eight, twelve and a half on a player option type of deal. Actually, he's gonna be making over thirteen million dollars next season. It's a big jump. So for the Lakers here, you'd rather give up Vanderbilt but you would have to attach more picks in order to make that happen. And maybe the Hawks would say, no, we don't want him, which is very fair. Or what happens is, and this actually could be interesting, maybe they waive and stretch Vando. They trade Jayden Hardy and then they end up kind of being able to free up some more money to sign Kaminga to a deal that both parties agreed to. But let me know down below in the comments what do you guys think? Is Jonathan Kaminga someone you want to make a move for? Should the Lakers do it? What price point would you feel comfortable with? For me, if it is on the Lakers terms, I think I'm more okay with it. But if they are forcing the forcing it to happen, I'm probably not gonna like what the deal is gonna look like. But with all that being said, I think the Lakers are actually handling this pretty smart and their logic here has made a whole lot of sense. To keep up with everything surrounding your Lakers, different rumors, reports, breaking news, as well as maybe the inevitable Jonathan Kaminga sign and trade, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss a thing here on this channel because I'm gonna say it, one more time for the people in the back. 7 out of 10 of you watching the videos, you're already watching, are not subscribed. It is free. It does not cost you a thing and it means a lot to this channel. So you can keep up with everything surrounding your Lakers here on Lakers.