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As we all suspected, and although he made us wait a while, Anthony Davis will continue to be a Laker for the foreseeable future. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed that the day we’ve been waiting for since the team switched to Davis is here: He officially agreed to re-sign with the Lakers in free agency, and the deal is for longer than we anticipated. :
NBA forward Anthony Davis is finalizing a maximum five-year, $ 190 million contract to stay with defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, Klutch Sports CEO and founder Rich Paul told ESPN.
The deal includes an early termination option before the deal’s fifth year in 2024-25, Paul said.
Davis, a free agent, is expected to sign the contract Thursday. It considered various short-term and long-term contract scenarios before accepting a maximum offer of five years, the sources said.
According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Davis would earn $ 32,742,000 this season, $ 35,361,360 in 2021-22, $ 37,980,720 in 2022-23, $ 40,600,080 in 2023-24 and $ 43,219,440 in the fifth year of the deal.
That Davis would return has been an open secret in league circles for quite some time, and it was clear how happy Davis was playing alongside his friend LeBron James in Los Angeles, a happiness that was apparently only amplified by his run to the title. . . James told Davis in the locker room after winning the 2020 NBA championship that they have “more work to do”; now that work can begin in earnest.
Davis’ comeback with the Lakers ensures that this team is ready to defend its title, something that was never really in question, but is now set in stone. As if the additions they’ve made thus far weren’t enough, free agency is now definitely a hit, and Davis is good enough that his signing made him one no matter who else the Lakers got. Having it done for at least four years makes it better than most of us could have imagined.
With Davis committed, the Lakers are now solidified as long-term contenders as well. While it was primarily thought that Davis would take a short-term deal to return to free agency with 10 years of experience in order to sign a maximum deal worth 35% of the cap, Davis evidently decided to lock in the money now. , just one day after LeBron James decided to sign a two-year extension with the team.
It is unknown if that commitment from James affected Davis’s decision, but it hardly matters. Regardless of the reasons, with Davis and James once again at the center of his list, there is no chance, short of a terrible injury misfortune, that the Lakers will ever be bad, and at just 27 years old, Davis should be starting to hit. . its peak. With him in town, whatever happens to James in 2023, the Lakers should be fine for a long, long time.
He’s batting 1-1 in title chases in Los Angeles so far. Now is the time to see if you can take your game to another level, take them to a replay, and firmly cement your name among the best players to ever wear purple and gold. He, and the team, are already on the right track, and now he can continue the incredible Lakers streak that he has achieved so far for a long time. This is the cherry on top of one of the best off seasons the Lakers have had.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.
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