Los Angeles Lakers: Proposals for 3 expiring contracts before trade deadline

2. Derrick Favors, PF, Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz have been rumored as far back as last year (via Yahoo! Sports‘ Shams Charania) to be seeking out a trade partner for Derrick Favors. Well it just so happens the Lakers are looking for an expiring contract, so a potential swap here makes plenty of sense.

In this situation, they unload Clarkson’s pricey deal and the three years (including this one) left on it. They also avoid Randle’s restricted free agent situation, moving him to Utah. In return, they get Favors, a quality big man who happens to only have one year left on his current contract.

The Jazz would have to be happy with what they’d get out of this one, especially since they’ve already broken up with Favors in their minds.

Honestly, I don’t see this being done for any other reason besides clearing cap space, one of the Lakers’ top goals heading into the 2017-18 campaign. Favors is an outstanding player, but wouldn’t be a long-term piece for Los Angeles. They don’t have the cap space to re-sign him while still tacking on two max contracts during the offseason.

This is my least favorite of the proposals because the Lakers don’t get much in return besides 2018 cap space. I know that’s the ultimate goal in acquiring expiring contracts, but why not get long-term assets in the process? They got Kyle Kuzma out of the Timofey Mozgov deal — they can find a way to make something work for them right now as well.