Rumor: Lakers interested in Ezeli at 50 million/3yr

[mr. dee]

He'll be just another Ian Mahinmi.

[TheSundanceKid]

There's almost no way the Warriors can keep both Ezeli and Barnes.  Resigning those two alone will likely push them into the luxury tax, and they also may want to pay to keep Speights and/or Barbosa around.  Keeping most of their team in tact will push the payroll to the $125-130 million range.  A lot of that money will still be committed next season when Curry gets a $20 million raise himself.

Accordingly, if teams want one of Barnes or Ezeli, it really makes sense to throw a big offer at them if you can afford it.  The Warriors will have real trouble matching it, so you can steal a restricted free agent.  And obviously Barnes is gone if the Warriors finagle Durant onto their roster, both due to cap reasons and roster construction reasons.

In 2017 Bogut comes off the books too. So I think they re-sign Ezeli as the heir apparent. Much of Bogut's salary will go to the Curry re-signing I imagine but they wouldn't be as far into the luxury tax. It'll be Barnes that will be difficult, someone will throw a max contract his way and I'm not sure it's worth it for GS to match given how much it will actually cost them

[kraidstar]

ezili has only played 92 regular season games the last 3 years, he missed the entire '13-'14 season, and averaged about 14 MPG in the last 2 seasons.

his stats per minute are solid - but he has a LOT of help around him on both ends, i've never seen anything that makes me think he's more than a role player.

he's young and could improve - but the injuries, limited minutes, and overall mediocrity are big red flags for me.

[LooseCannon]

It's probably reasonable to expect you have to offer close to as much money as you'd have to throw at Gorgui Dieng if he were a restricted free agent this summer.

[Stig]

This doesn't look so crazy to me, Walton will be coaching lakers, maybe he knows Ezeli's true potential?

[chilidawg]

He'll be just another Ian Mahinmi.

Mahinmi had a pretty good season.  I'd say he's better than any of our bigs.

[crimson_stallion]

http://nba.nbcsports.com/2016/05/06/how-crazy-will-summer-free-agent-market-be-how-about-reported-50-million-for-festus-ezeli/?ocid=Yahoo&partner=ya5nbcs

Market is so insane that the fakers might try to pry Restricted Festus Ezeli from the Warriors with a contract worth 50 million. This would apparently be 16.7 mil a year. Article breaks down his stats, but they aren't pretty. This market is gonna be stupid for none superstars going forward. (7 pts and 5 reb in 17 mpg)

Ainge really is a maestro with these recent contracts he has signed (cough bradley and crowder.)

Makes sense. 

Three years from now they can compete with Cleveland (Thompson) for the title of "stupidest overpay for a role playing big man". 

Except Cleveland at least have a reason (they are contending and are in win now mode, and couldn't afford to replace TT if he walked), so the Lakers would win that by default.