The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to become very active on trade front and free agency market this summer as they are determined to become title contenders again next season.
The Lakers could make a major roster overhaul, but reports indicated that veteran point guard Steve Nash and second-year playmaker Kendall Marshall could be back next season.
Nash, who has only played in 12 games this season due to a multitude of injuries this year, is scheduled to earn $9.7 million in the final year of his contract next season.
The Lakers have the option to release Nash and have his salary stretched out over three seasons, but LA Times reporter Mike Bresnahan revealed, citing unnamed sources, that the Lakers are planning to keep the 40-year-old point guard next season.
"For financial reasons, the Lakers currently plan to keep him next season, The Times has learned, eating the remainder of his contract in one swoop instead of waiving him and spreading the money out over three years," Bresnahan wrote.
Releasing Nash would give the Lakers more cap space to sign marquee players this summer, but sources indicated that the team's front office executives prefer paying Nash for one season in order to become players on the free agency market in the summer of 2015 and 2016.
"It would give them more money to spend in the summers of 2015 and 2016, when they figure to be active players in the free-agent market amid such possible names as Kevin Love, LeBron James and Kevin Durant," Bresnahan noted.
Aside from Nash, Marshall is poised to continue wearing the Lakers' purple and gold next season after an impressive stint with the team since signing a deal in December.
The 22-year-old point guard, who was the 13th overall pick in the 2012 NBA Draft, leads the Lakers in assists with 8.9 dimes on top of 8.1 points per game this season.
"The key for Marshall, 22, is his relatively inexpensive non-guaranteed contract - $915,243 next season in a league in which the average salary is about $5.5 million," Bresnahan wrote.
