Los Angeles Lakers: How Kawhi Leonard’s move to the Clippers impacts the Lakers

2. The Lakers can sign a solid cast of supporting players

Not signing Leonard means the Lakers have a lot of money to spend on filling out the rest of their roster.

In the immediate aftermath of the Leonard news, the Lakers promptly agreed to a deal with shooting guard Danny Green, and later agreed to re-sign center JaVale McGee and guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

As of early Saturday morning, DeMarcus Cousins is the biggest name left in free agency, and the Lakers could make a push for the four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA center.

Last season his numbers went down to 16.3 points and 8.2 rebounds per game as he made his comeback from a ruptured Achilles tendon, and his role was reduced as a member of the star-studded Warriors.

If they don’t pursue Cousins for the money he’ll probably expect, the Lakers could spend their remaining salary cap space on a collection of high-quality role players instead.

Marcus Morris, Kelly Oubre, Jabari Parker and Avery Bradley are some of the names worth considering. The Lakers could also try to re-sign Rajon Rondo from last season’s team.

After pushing almost all of their asset chips to the middle of the table this offseason to gamble for Anthony Davis and Kawhi Leonard, the Lakers did get one of their top targets.

Now that they’ve whiffed on the other, it’s time for the front office to really earn their paychecks and put together the best team possible out of the scraps left on the market.