Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is playing his way into another contract. He was going to get one anyway, obviously, because it’s not like he’s a bad player or anything. I guess what I mean is that he’s playing his way into a bigger contract. Some GM is going to look at his scattered 20-burgers and recent 35-burger and think “we could use a three-point gunner to bolster our bench or maybe even our starting unit”. But which team will it be who earns the services of KCP next year? Let’s analyze some of the possibilities.
Los Angeles Lakers: this one makes a lot of sense, because if you pay close attention, he’s actually on the Lakers roster right now! They now what they have, and maybe they like what they see. I could see him returning for a short deal, maybe one or two years at like 12 million per season.
Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson is a huge dumbass, and probably saw Caldwell-Pope score 35 against the Bucks and yelled to everyone in the next Lakers FO meeting “WE NEED THIS GUY HE’S A WINNING PLAYER”. If he gets his way, which he will, because he’s gotten his way in every personnel decision to this point (to the Lakers’ extreme detriment), I’m guessing some sort of ridiculously long, ridiculously bloated contract. Not a Supermax, but close.
Los Angeles Lakers: LeBron James will be hard at work as vice-GM of the Lakers this offseason, trying to figure out which crappy vets he should handpick so he can miss the playoffs again. He knows he wants to play with “shooters”, and KCP is a “shooter”, so I’m envisioning some sort of meetup on a “banana boat” where they talk about the future of the Lakers and how LeBron wants KCP to be part of that future.
Los Angeles Lakers: Caldwell-Pope is angling for a career in Hollywood after his career is over, so it makes sense to position himself in LA to get the ball rolling on that. It’s easy to rub shoulders with all sorts of bigshot producers and executives when you’re going to the same swanky clubs that they are. He might take a big discount to play for the Lakers, knowing that the money he loses in the short term will be made up tenfold in the future.