Ed Davis on free agency: 'I definitely want to be back' with Lakers
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The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to clear a whole lot of cap space this summer, which means power forward Jordan Hill will likely be trading in his forum blue and gold duds.
Ed Davis, who served as Hill's nominal backup last season, hopes he'll get to keep his.
"I definitely want to be back," Davis - who plans to opt out of the final year and $1.1 million of his contract - told Mark Medina of the LA Daily News. "With everything being equal, I’m 100 percent going back there. Hopefully that’s the case. But with free agency and all the stuff going on with the draft, you never know how things are going to go."
Davis signed a minimum deal last offseason and acquitted himself well, averaging career-highs in points (8.3), rebounds (7.6), and blocks (1.2) in 23.3 minutes. He was arguably the Lakers' most consistent and productive forward on both sides of the ball, and led the team with a PER of 20.
Davis is understandably angling to secure a more lucrative long-term deal, but it's unclear where of if he fits into the Lakers' offseason plans.
"He’s helped himself enough to be in a position to do better than that," general manager Mitch Kupchak said. "He’s also indicated he would love to continue to play here. But I don’t know what the market is going to be."
Complicating things further is the looming logjam in the Lakers' frontcourt. With the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft likely to bring in one of Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor, and Julius Randle set to return after missing last season to a broken leg, it could be hard for Davis to scratch out minutes, even with Hill out of the picture.
Regardless, he's reportedly looking to get paid like a starter. According to Medina, while Davis wouldn't divulge the specifics of his preferred contract, "a league source familiar with his thinking said he will seek a two- or three-year deal worth $7-8 million a year, or a one-year deal worth $9-10 million."
If the Lakers whiff on other (starrier) potential free agents, they might be able to justify paying Davis for a year, then entering the highly anticipated summer of 2016 with gobs of cap room.
Given the team's ambitions and roster construction, a long-term deal that rich is harder to picture.