Los Angeles Lakers: PayKCP or not, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a champion

It’s been a long road for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but in a multi-year journey from #PayKCP to the Los Angeles Lakers, he’s an NBA champion.

There are journeys that when you begin, you can scarcely predict where you might end up. One such journey belongs to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. As a former lottery pick with the Detroit Pistons entering free agency, he and the Pistons couldn’t come to an agreement on a number to re-sign. That’s where his journey began, and it’s far from where it ended up.

In the summer of 2017, the number the Pistons offered was a five-year, $80 million contract, and KCP’s camp was not interested in signing that contract. He was a restricted free agent, meaning that the Pistons could match any offer sheet he signed and retain him for the course of the deal. Over the first few days of free agency, there were no offers, but KCP’s camp was sure that one was forthcoming, likely from the Brooklyn Nets who had gobs of cap space and had indicated they had interest earlier in the season.

Before the Nets could make an offer, though, a surge of events took place. Gordon Hayward signed with the Boston Celtics, but the Celtics needed to clear space in order to consummate the deal, so they traded Avery Bradley to the Pistons for Marcus Morris and opened up the needed amount of cap space. With Avery Bradley aboard, the Pistons were able to pivot away from KCP entirely, and they swiftly renounced his rights which allowed other teams to sign him without the Pistons being able to match.

It’s probably irrelevant, but giving up leverage in the NBA for no reason at all is asinine, and that’s exactly what they did. KCP was signed by the Los Angeles Lakers shortly thereafter to a one-year, $17.7 million contract.

Of course, the 2017-18 season wasn’t smooth sailing even with greener pastures. In March of 2017, Caldwell-Pope was arrested and charged in Auburn Hills, Michigan for a DUI, something that surely didn’t help much in his negotiations with the Pistons. Before the Lakers season even began, he failed to comply with a Michigan court’s order regarding his case, and he was ordered to serve a 25-day sentence.

He was able to play games in the state of California and leave for practices, but when he wasn’t playing or practicing, he was at the Seal Beach jail facility.

KCP overcoming adversity in the end with the Los Angeles Lakers

KCP played poorly in this stretch of games and the jokes rained down. Through his struggles, he still shot a career-high 38.3 percent from 3-point range. In 2018-19, the world changed for the Los Angeles Lakers when LeBron James signed on. Caldwell-Pope had a down year in comparison, shooting just 34.7 percent from the floor, but all those struggles and self-induced challenges all ended up being worth it in 2019-20.

He had a tremendous regular season for the Lakers, shooting another career-high of 38.5 percent from 3-point range and a career-best 46.7 percent from the floor. He only started 26 of his 69 games, but he was an effective guard and wing defender off the bench, adding to the sturdy defensive backcourt of Avery Bradley (ironically enough), Rajon Rondo and Alex Caruso.

Not every gamble a player makes on himself pays off. Nerlens Noel will never make back the $75 million he turned down from the Dallas Mavericks, and he won’t have a ring to show for it either. In KCP’s case, though, he’s the biggest winner of the #PayKCP saga.

Assuming he opts into his 2020-21 salary of $8.5 million, which we can assume he will in these uncertain financial times, he will have made $46.3 million with the Los Angeles Lakers through four years after turning down $80 million over five years. At the age of 27, he has plenty of time to make up lost salary, and he’s basically traded an effective 27 percent of his salary for a championship with LeBron James and the Lakers.

While the Detroit Pistons are still trying to pick themselves up off the mat after a 20-win season, KCP is an NBA champion as the third-best player on the Lakers, averaging 12.9 points in the NBA  Finals. It’s been a heck of a ride, and plenty of the challenges were self-induced, but everything worked out for KCP in the end.