Despite entering the offseason well above the salary cap, the Lakers have been busy since free agency began. They split their $14.1 million non-taxpayer mid-level exception between Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia, and they just signed Marcus Smart to a two-year, $10.5 million deal via the bi-annual exception.
Prior to signing Smart, the Lakers were already hard-capped at the first apron since they used the non-taxpayer MLE, and they sat roughly $900,000 below that line. To carve out enough space under the first apron to sign Smart, they had to waive both Shake Milton, whose $3 million salary was fully non-guaranteed until July 20, and Jordan Goodwin, who had only $25,000 of his $2.3 million salary guaranteed once the Lakers picked up their team option in late June.
After waiving Milton and Goodwin and signing Smart, the Lakers now sit $1.1 million below the first apron. Since they’re hard-capped, they cannot cross the first apron under any circumstance between now and June 30, 2026.
Luckily, they’ve already become adept at navigating tight apron margins, as they entered last season only $45,000 below the second apron after LeBron James took slightly less than his max salary. Had they been above the second apron, they wouldn’t have been able to aggregate contracts to steal Luka Dončić away from Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks at the NBA trade deadline in February.
Since the Lakers aren’t allowed to cross the first apron this year, they won’t be subject to the punishing team-building restrictions that other title hopefuls face. They’re allowed to aggregate contracts in trades and take back more salary in a trade than they send out, although they still have to finish any deal below the first apron, no matter what. The NBA wouldn’t allow the proposed trade to go through otherwise. They’ll also be allowed to sign anyone on the buyout market, even players who were previously earning more than the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Teams above either apron can’t.
With that said, it might take until around the time of the buyout market heating up for the Lakers to fill their one remaining open roster spot. Since they’re only $1.1 million under the first apron, they currently don’t have enough room below the hard cap to sign anyone to even a veteran-minimum contract. They’d have to shed salary in a trade before they can make another free-agent signing.
If the Lakers stick with their current roster, when would they be able to fill that 15th roster spot? The short answer is mid-January.
Here’s the longer version: Anyone with two or more years of NBA experience would count as $2.3 million against the Lakers’ cap sheet if they sign a one-year, veteran-minimum contract this offseason. However, once the regular season starts, minimum contracts begin to prorate based on the number of days remaining in the season. The regular season begins on Oct. 21 this year, and although the NBA hasn’t announced when it ends yet, a safe guess would be Sunday, April 12. That means there would be 174 days in the regular season.
Divide the exact salary ($2,296,274) by 174 and you get roughly $13,197, which is how much a veteran-minimum contract should prorate daily once the regular season begins. From there, you just need to divide the Lakers’ remaining space under the apron ($1,099,194) by $13,197 and you get roughly 83.3.
So, if my back-of-the-napkin math is correct, the Lakers will need to wait 84 days from the start of the regular season — which would be Jan. 12, 2026 — before they’re able to fill that final roster spot with someone who has two or more years of NBA experience. It would take less time if they wanted to sign a rookie or someone with only one year in the league.
A number of teams often leave a roster spot open heading into the season to maintain flexibility at the trade deadline, so it wouldn’t be particularly unusual for the Lakers to go into the 2025-26 season with only 14 players on standard contracts. However, two of those 14 are Bronny James, who played only 181 total minutes as a rookie last season, and rookie second-round pick Adou Thiero. Depth could become a major issue for the Lakers if the injury bug begins to pop up.
Had the Lakers signed Jaxson Hayes to a standard one-year vet-min deal rather than via non-Bird rights, they’d have an extra $1.15 million in breathing room under the first apron. That was basically the difference between them having to waive Goodwin before signing Smart or being able to keep him on the roster. Granted, the Lakers might have chosen to waive Goodwin either way to create an open roster spot and avoid cutting into their wiggle room under the first apron once the regular season began.
Regardless, the Lakers’ roster is now likely set for the rest of the offseason unless they swing a trade to free up more space under the first apron.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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