One of the most consistent contributors for the Los Angeles Lakers during the playoffs outside of their two superstar leaders is lining things up for a bigger payday. Outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, perhaps no player was a bigger key to the success of the Lakers in their run towards an NBA championship than Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and now he’s going to be weighing his options after helping bring the Lakers their 17th championship.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Thursday that Caldwell-Pope is looking to opt-out of the final year of his contract and sign a new, presumably higher-value deal. The Lakers do, however, have the bird rights on his contract and can go over the salary cap in order to re-sign him if need be.
There’s significant mutual interest between Caldwell-Pope and the Lakers, but there will be some external suitors. A team such as Atlanta — searching for productive veterans around All-Star Trae Young — could emerge with interest.
The Hawks being a potential suitor is notable, if for no other reason than they are projected to have among the highest possible amount of available cap space of any team in the NBA. The Hawks could have over $44 million in cap space available to them.
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