2018 NBA free agency grades: Lakers to re-sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
With LeBron James’ intentions of heading to L.A., the Los Angeles Lakers have begun building his supporting cast by agreeing to re-sign Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Los Angeles Lakers become instant Western Conference contenders with LeBron James, but they need to find a savvy way to fill out a roster to support him. Agreeing to re-sign guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was a good first step. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Caldwell-Pope’s 5.3 Win Shares for the Lakers last season put him as a top-20 free agent this offseason.
The Lakers already come out looking good in this deal, as they know they need to surround LeBron James with shooters as quickly as possible. They found a very affordable short-term option in Caldwell-Pope. Trevor Ariza has plans to head to the PhoenixSuns and he just got paid $3 million more than KCP, a younger version of Ariza.
When comparing career statistics between Ariza and KCP, we see that KCP has the advantage in points per game (12.0 to Ariza’s 10.5), but that’s it. Ariza has a slightly better 3-point shooting percentage (35.3 to 34.5), but they both attempt and make nearly the same amount of 3-pointers per game.
Over the course of their careers, Ariza has projected to be the better defender according to their Defensive Ratings; Ariza has a 105 career rating while KCP’s is 108. However, their Offensive Ratings are both 106, thanks to nearly the same amount of rebounds, assists and turnovers per game.
Comparing the 2017-18 season for Ariza and KCP gives us a glimpse of Caldwell-Pope’s potential. KCP out-produced Ariza in points, rebounds and assists per game. KCP was the better 3-point shooter as well by 1.5 percent, albeit on slightly fewer attempts per game.
Another upside of the Lakers bringing back KCP is his continued growth in the game over his five-season career. KCP’s 111 Offensive Rating last season was the best of his career and his 108 Defensive Rating was the second-best of his career. KCP led all Lakers last year with 106 steals as well, 18 more than Lonzo Ball. KCP was just one of 25 players in the NBA with 100 or more steals last season.
LeBron will need reliable shooters and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is an ever improving 3-point specialist. His 3-point shooting percentage jumped from 35.0 in 2016-17 with Detroit to 38.3 percent last season with the Lakers. According to NBA.com, KCP was assisted on 87.4 percent of the 3-pointers he made, which should bode well for when defenses collapse on James.
KCP was also second on the Lakers last year in Win Shares, though his .103 WS/48 minutes indicate he was slightly above-average for the Lakers last year. Average or not, KCP’s WS total would have ranked third on the Cavaliers last season. Plus, the expectations aren’t exactly high for being a teammate of LeBron James.
Well the bar for bonehead teammate for LeBron is literally “Don’t forget the score at the end of a Finals game” so
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) July 2, 2018
Jokes aside, KCP still needs to continue to improve overall. His 13.2 Player Efficiency Rating ranked sixth on the Lakers among players that accumulated over 1,000 minutes last season. Granted, that is right in line with Tristan Thompson of the Cavs last season, but LeBron James will need KCP to be more than just an average role player next year given his skill-set.
The one downside for the Lakers currently is their salary cap situation. While securing KCP is good for their team, they have limited salary cap flexibility this season, unless they pull off some trades soon.
Lakers, with LeBron James’ 4-year, $153M and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope’s 1-year, $12M, can create $2.2M of cap room, including Julius Randle’s cap hold. Removing Randle’s cap hold adds $11.6M. Stretching Luol Deng adds $9.8M. Trading Deng adds $17.2M. Also have R-MLE ($4.4M).
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) July 2, 2018
But the Lakers may be playing it smart at the same time. The San Antonio Spurs are asking a steep price from anyone asking for Kawhi Leonard, so Los Angeles could very well wait this out and just sign him in free agency next summer.
Lakers very much want Kawhi Leonard and, in my humble opinion, are using their cap room on one-year deals to remain completely flexible in that regard. Trade for him this summer? Great! If they can’t, need to maximize cap room. His max salary is a projected $32.7M next summer.
— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertNahmad) July 2, 2018
All in all, the Lakers made a pretty sharp move here. KCP comes in on a relatively good deal on for just one year and provides LeBron a 3-point specialist upgrade over J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver; and KCP can do more than just shoot 3-pointers too. This deal has the potential to limit the Lakers in free agency this season, but one has to assume that they aren’t quite done making moves support the new king of L.A.
Next: 2018 NBA free agency tracker: Grades for every deal so far
Grade: B+