The Lakers are considered one of the most likely to win a championship trophy before entering the 2021-22 season, after all, they are the team with the big three lineup of LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook, in addition to future Hall of Famers such as Cameron Anthony and Dwight Howard.
At least on paper, the Lakers do have a team that impacts the championship lineup. It's just that this past season, the Lakers have arguably failed completely and need to make changes this offseason.
The problem now is that the Lakers lineup does not have a good enough salary situation to enter the 2022-23 season, and here are the salaries of Lakers players in this offseason and the 2022-23 season:
LeBron James: Final year on a 2-year top salary contract ($44.5 million)
Anthony Davis: Entering the third year of a 5-year top salary contract ($38 million)
Russell Westbrook: Player options for the 2022-23 season ($47 million)
Malik Munch: Unrestricted free agent
Kendrick Nunn: Player option for the 2022-23 season ($5.3 million)
Taren Horton Tucker: Year 2 on a 3-year contract ($10.3 million)
Cameron Anthony: Unrestricted free agent
Dwight Howard: Unrestricted free agent
Avery Bradley: Unrestricted free agent
Wayne Ellington: Unrestricted free agent
Kent Bazemore: Unrestricted free agent
DJ Augustine: Unrestricted free agent
Austin Reeves: Team options for the 2022-23 season ($1.5 million)
Stanley Johnson: Team option for the 2022-23 season ($2.4 million)
Wayne Gabriel: Team option for the 2022-23 season ($1.9 million)
Judging from the above salary situation, the Lakers definitely need to promote the deal involving Westbrook, after all, only in this case can it continue to build a lineup around James and Davis, in addition, some veteran players in the team are expected to leave the team, of course, the Lakers need to keep Malik Munch, Reeves and Stanley Johnson as much as possible.
Overall, the Lakers don't have a lot of work to do this offseason.