5 Free Agents Los Angeles Lakers Should Target in 2017 NBA Offseason

Summer free agency is still months away, but for the Los Angeles Lakers, the opportunity to sign some meaningful talent cant come soon enough.The team has one of the worst defenses in the league, a dearth of bigs who can stretch the floor and continuing question marks at the point guard position.The bloated four-year contracts L.A. handed Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov last summer have clearly impacted future spending. Nonetheless, according to Basketball Insiders'Eric Pincus, the team is projected to have $31.5 million in available cap space this summer.Thats enough for one max-type offer or any combination of more prudent deals.Nick Young has the ability to exercise his player's option at the end of the season, while Metta World Peace, Thomas Robinson and Tyler Ennis will also be free agents. On the other hand, L.A. will likely have two first-round draft picks.The big picture is that the Lakers won't have a lot of holes to fill, but they certainly need some upgrading.Yet despite the number of quality players that will be available and a management reboot in Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations and Rob Pelinka as general manager, there are certain challenges that will be hard to overcome.The new collective bargaining agreement makes it easier for teams to retain their own stars by paying them more and signing them to longer terms than the competition can.Plus, the lure of the Lakers simply isn't what it once was. Why would the likes of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Gordon Hayward and Blake Griffin want to play for a team whose last playoff berth was a first-round bounce four years ago'Reality bites sometimes. But that doesn't mean L.A. has to settle for marginal players that cost too much once again. Indeed, there will be a number of quality players on the market that areat least in theorygettable.Begin Slideshow
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