The Lakers had been loading up on minimum salaries: Carmelo Anthony, Malik Monk, Kent Bazemore, Trevor Ariza, Wayne Ellington and Dwight Howard.
Now, Los Angeles will spend bigger – on restricted free agent Talen Horton-Tucker and newly unrestricted free agent Kendrick Nunn.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Shams Charania of The Athletic:
I’m surprised Horton-Tucker didn’t quite get the full Early Bird Exception over three years ($33,645,780). The Lakers clearly value him.
The Heat pulled Nunn’s $4,736,102 qualifying offer. Hard-capped from the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade, Miami preferred to use its limited additional spending power on Duncan Robinson and P.J. Tucker (mid-level exception).
Now, Nunn will get most of the taxpayer mid-level exception in Los Angeles. He’s a talented scorer who can fit onto a good defense.
Horton-Tucker and Nunn are intriguing backcourt options on a Lakers team that has suddenly built major depth (though lacks high-end role players around LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook).
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Lakers re-signing Talen Horton-Tucker ($32M), signing Kendrick Nunn ($10M) originally appeared on NBCSports.com