The Los Angeles Lakers are left eating the salary of Steve Nash for the time being. The point guard is officially out for the season following more nerve issues in his back, an injury that kept him off the court for a majority of last season as well. The hit to the salary cap is essentially crippling any moves the Lakers can make in order to improve which is leaving the team to consider all options regarding Nash's future in Los Angeles.
According to ESPN's Marc Stein, the Lakers will still attempt to trade Nash during the season in hopes of getting rid of his salary. The point guard still has one year remaining on his deal worth $9.7 million. The market for Nash is small, extremely small, but the Lakers feel they may be able to ship him off by the February deadline in hopes of bringing someone in to save the season.
The only teams that will be interested in acquiring Nash as dead weight is someone looking to clear cap space for the free agency run of 2015. It is an extreme longshot at this point considering no one will be willing to give anything marquee in return for Nash and the Lakers lack the right assets to package the point guard with someone. The Lakers are also looking to clear cap space for 2015 so a trade is not necessarily a necessity, but considering the team has one win on the season so far, getting someone that can contribute is better than having Nash sucking up salary cap space.
The Lakers did get one break. Stein reports the Lakers were granted a Disabled Player Exception following the season-ending leg injury of rookie Julius Randle. ESPN.com reports the exception is valued at $1.5 million. The Lakers can use that to sign someone off the free agent market or they could combine the exception with Nash and try to acquire a $10 million player. Someone like Larry Sanders would be an excellent addition.
The Lakers have their sights set on point guards for the future. Right now the team has Jeremy Lin playing off an expiring contract. It is unclear whether he will be back or not, but according to Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors, Goran Dragic will be a priority for the Lakers either view trade or free agency. Dragic is coming off a big season, but is on a roster very crowded in the backcourt positions. With several other players signed to multi-year deals, Dragic could be the odd man out. The Lakers are also going to attempt to acquire Rajon Rondo as well after players like Ricky Rubio and Eric Bledsoe were taken off the market.
