Lakers Rumors: LAL Seeks to Limit Repeater Tax Hit While Exploring Deadline Trades

The Los Angeles Lakers may be trying to thread an impossibly small needle as they potentially look to trade Russell Westbrook before the Feb. 9 deadline and bolster the roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Alongside the complications of moving Westbrook's massive $47 million deal, the Lakers also reportedly are trying to keep their luxury tax bill within reason in any possible trades.

According to Kyle Goon of the Orange County Daily Register, a rival executive expressed that "one of the franchise's recurring themes in discussions of multiple possible deals is a desire to limit the hit on their repeater tax, which increases exponentially next year as they fill out a cast around James and Davis."

So to review: Westbrook is difficult to move given his huge salary, the limitations on the number of players the Lakers can take back in an effort to move that salary given restrictions on roster sizes and the draft capital they'll likely have to sacrifice to entice another team to add Westbrook to their payroll.

But alongside all of that, the Lakers are also trying to avoid adding too much more salary to the books, so they likely won't want to go above any outgoing salary in deals.

Oh, and add in the fact that James pretty clearly isn't happy that the Lakers failed to land Kyrie Irving—and that the 25-29 Lakers currently don't appear equipped to compete at a high level and maximize the remainder of James' window as an NBA superstar—and you have enormous pressure to thread the aforementioned needle and major questions as to whether Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka has the dexterity to pull it off.

James' tweet after the Irving trade to the Dallas Mavericks seemed to hint as his growing discontent with the Lakers' failures to land another star that fit better alongside him:

But then James actually, and very publicly, expressed his disappointment.

"I can't sit here and say I'm not disappointed on not being able to land such a talent, but [also] someone that I had great chemistry with, and know I got great chemistry with on the floor, that can help you win championships, in my mind, in my eyes," he told ESPN's Michael Wilbon. "But my focus is shifted now. My focus is shifted back to where it should be and that's this club now and what we have in the locker room."

If you think James is worried about the repeater tax or whether it takes the 2027 and 2029 first-round picks to move off Westbrook's salary in a trade, well, those comments should make it clear that the 38-year-old is only concerned with the present.

The Lakers are trying to manage the future alongside the present. It's hard to imagine them having their cake and eating it too. Something is going to have to give. If the Lakers stay put with their current roster, they very much risk having a disgruntled James on their hands.