According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Los Angeles Lakers are wanting to upgrade their center position with some veteran talent and leadership. This has drawn their attention to players like Brook Lopez.

In addition to targeting Lopez, other players such as Clint Capela and Al Horford have caught their attention. Rob Pelinka has made it his mission to give added security to the front court and make both Luka Doncic and LeBron James happy.

All three players are unrestricted free agents this offseason, so Los Angeles will not have to sacrifice pieces to acquire one of them through a trade.

Capela’s future with the Atlanta Hawks seems over due to them trading for Kristaps Porzingis and selecting Asa Newell in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft.

Horford may look to move on with the team going in a different direction financially and wanting to get younger. The Boston Celtics continue to navigate through their salary cap and luxury tax messes.

Same can be applied to the Milwaukee Bucks, as they want to get younger and free up themselves up financially.

“There’s names like Brook Lopez, Clint Capela, Al Horford out there in free agency,” said Shams Charania on Get Up. “Will it be that route or the trade route? That’s what everyone in L.A. and everyone around the league is waiting on.”

Los Angeles’ current center room consists of Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, Jaxson Hayes, and Alex Len.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Dallas Mavericks and Kyrie Irving have come together to agree on a new extension to keep the veteran guard in Dallas for the foreseeable future.

To make this deal work, Irving needed to decline his $43 million player option for next season. This new contract does not include an option.

The 33-year-old signed a three-year, $119 million extension. Many assume this will be one of the last contracts Irving will sign before he retires.

Before suffering his ACL tear, Charania reported that Irving was expected to make around $50-$60 million per season. Unfortunately, the injury has forced Irving into accepting less per year. He’s estimated to make $39.6 million per season.

By opting out and lowering his salary for the following season, this will allow the Mavericks to use their $5.7 million taxpayer midlevel exception.

According to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko, the Houston Rockets are most likely going to decline Fred VanVleet’s team option worth $44.9 million. This is for the sore purpose of working on a new multi-year contract to secure his future with the organization.

Both sides have remained committed to each other and both publicly have stated they want to continue working together.

“Obviously, I put my heart and soul into this, and this is where I want to be,” VanVleet said. “It’s definitely a family situation. I’ve got a lot of love for our coaching staff, Rafael (Stone), the Fertitta family, what we set out to do when I had my free agent meeting two years ago, and we’re on that track. It was never a short-term vision. It was a long-term goal. We’re on track. We’re on schedule.”

This quote was from when he was asked how he sees his future shaping up in the league. Both Houston and VanVleet agreed to push back the team option deadline to June 29th.

It’s unclear what the Rockets would be willing to offer the 31-year-old this time around, as he is coming off freshly signing a three-year, $130 million contract with them back in 2023’s offseason.