The Los Angeles Lakers will sport around $60 million in salary cap space this offseason. While that sounds nice in theory (who wouldn't want to sign 1-2 max players?), they have just six players under contract for the 2016-17 season. General manager Mitch Kupchak needs to spread the money out in order to fill up his roster.
Free agent big men Roy Hibbert and Tarik Black are not expected to be re-signed in restricted free agency. As such, Toronto Raptors reserve center Bismack Biyombo has been mentioned as a possible target this offseason thanks to his head-turning play this post-season. However, Biyombo's asking price will be considerable.
"But you factor in the cap spike and it's probably going to be high, I'd say, $16-17 million," Sean Deveney of Sporting News wrote. "It'll be a heck of a $17 million-per-year gamble."
Another Eastern Conference executive said that Biyombo's price tag may even come in a bit higher thanks to the demand of big men and the increasing cap.
"With the way free agency could wind up going, three years and $60 (million) would be my guess," he said.
Such a deal would consume around a third of Los Angeles' available salary cap space, and the team still needs to re-sign restricted free agent point guard Jordan Clarkson. However, Deveney argues that Biyombo's skill set fits perfectly with the Lakers and others.
"It also helps that some well-heeled and high-profile teams will be in need of a center who brings rim protections this summer," he wrote. "Boston GM Danny Ainge said that would be among the Celtics' top targets, and Boston will be a team with interest in Biyombo. So will the Lakers, as they are known to be eagerly seeking a defensive big man to put with Julius Randle in the front court."
Biyombo, still just 23, stepped up in Jonas Valanciunas' absense this post-season. The former lottery pick averaged 12.1 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in the games that Valanciunas missed.
Another big man that Los Angeles is reportedly interested in this offseason is Golden State Warriors backup Festus Ezeli. We'll see how the team values these players once free agency officially opens on July 1.
