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To many people’s surprise, the Los Angeles Lakers swooped in and acquired Dorian Finney-Smith earlier this week in a four-player trade with the Brooklyn Nets.
Finney-Smith was expected to be one of the more coveted 3-and-D wings on the trade market, and Los Angeles only had to get rid of D’Angelo Russell–on an expiring contract–Maxwell Lewis and three future second-round picks. Finney-Smith is having arguably the best season of his career, and one recent report suggests that the 6-foot-7 wing could be looking to cash out this upcoming offseason.
“While the Lakers hope to keep Finney-Smith long-term, the early expectation is he will decline his $15.38 million player option for the 2025-26 season and enter unrestricted free agency,” Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported Tuesday.
Ironically, only the Nets currently have enough cap space to sign Finney-Smith and others beyond what his next season’s salary would be if he didn’t opt out. But we know that’s unlikely to happen.
According to Spotrac’s current cap projections for next year, 16 teams are projected to be at least $23 million below the first apron. While not all of them are over the tax, of course, it’s a conceivable benchmark for one of those teams to use their full mid-level exception (~13M) while maintaining some flexibility.
Of course, we won’t have more clarity about certain teams’ cap situations until after the Feb. 6 trade deadline. It’s also worth considering that the Lakers will own his bird rights, making it easier to re-sign because they can sign him to any amount up to the max.
He won’t command the latter, but if he opts out, his market may be bigger than one could suggest. If not, then some team–such as the Lakers–could still nab him on a team-friendly deal. Finney-Smith is streaky, but 3-and-D players don’t grow on trees.
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