Anthony Davis signs three-year max extension with Lakers
Los Angeles Lakers superstar big Anthony Davis has signed a three-year max extension that could be worth up to $186 million, ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski was first to report Friday. It marks the richest annual extension in NBA History at $62 million.
Davis is entering the fourth year of a five-year, $189.9 million deal signed in Dec. of 2020; while a player who signs a five-year deal would have to wait three calendar years to sign an extension, Dec. 3 of 2020 (when Davis signed the extension) became equivalent to Aug. 4 of a typical offseason with free agency beginning Nov. 21 (and the regular season beginning Dec. 21), according to ESPN NBA Cap analyst Bobby Marks.
Davis is scheduled to make $40.6 million and originally had a $43.2 million player option for the 2024-25 season. Now, with his extension, Davis would automatically opt into the player option and will be signed through 2027-28.
We won’t know the official max contract numbers, but the $186 million is fully dependent on if the cap raises a full 10 percent in each of the next two offseasons. If so, Davis would make $270 million from now until the end of his contract and $376 million in eight seasons with the Lakers. According to RealGM, the cap is projected to raise 4.4 percent from 2023-24 to 2024-25 and an additional five percent from ’24-25 to ’25-26. In that case, Davis’s max would be worth roughly $169 million, beginning at $52.2 million.
The Lakers only have two players under contracts in 2026-27: Austin Reaves ($14.9MM player option) and Jalen Hood-Schifino ($6.2MM team option), so the Lakers can afford to take the weight of Davis’s contract–especially if the cap continues to rise by 9-10 percent.
Ultimately, with the uncertainty surrounding LeBron James‘ future in purple-and-gold, it was very important for L.A. to lock Davis up. Now, they have.
The 30-year-old averaged 25.9 points, 12.5 rebounds and two blocks on 62.7 percent true-shooting last season. In 38 combined games without James over the last two seasons, Davis has averaged 26.5 points, 12.6 rebounds and a pair of blocks on 59.1 percent true shooting.
This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
***
Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch
Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube
Check out the Vendetta Shop
Click here for more NBA content
