{"id":151616,"date":"2025-07-22T10:29:39","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151616"},"modified":"2025-07-22T10:29:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T14:29:39","slug":"lakers-almost-reunited-with-kentavious-caldwell-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/22\/lakers-almost-reunited-with-kentavious-caldwell-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Almost Reunited With 38% 3PT Menace In Talks With Rival"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES<\/strong> \u2013 The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> have moved aggressively this offseason. Even as they see LeBron James<\/a> as an expiring asset, they want to build a contender around him and Luka Don\u010di\u0107<\/a>. At the same time, they aim to maintain cap flexibility for next summer. This balancing act pushed the Lakers toward trade talks involving Kentavious Caldwell-Pope<\/a> with the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>. This is according to intel from Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lakers Almost Reunited With Kentavious Caldwell-Pope In Talks With Rival<\/h2>\n

Siegel reports, “<\/em>After fielding calls for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope when they first traded for him with the Orlando Magic, the Grizzlies have not seen any real conversations materialize for the veteran shooting guard. The Lakers were a team that spoke with Memphis about KCP after their Desmond Bane trade, sources said.”<\/p>\n

Why Caldwell-Pope Made Sense For The Lakers<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Kentavious
May 22, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (6) shoots the ball against Denver Nuggets guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5) during the second quarter in game four of the Western Conference Finals for the 2023 NBA playoffs at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Grizzlies landed Caldwell-Pope after flipping<\/a> Desmond Bane<\/a> to the Magic<\/a>. They then looked to shed more salary to extend Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> The Lakers interest in Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made sense. They needed a proven point-of-attack defender badly. On paper, Caldwell-Pope fit perfectly.<\/p>\n

He knows the Lakers inside out. Caldwell-Pope spent four seasons in purple and gold and won a championship in the 2020 bubble. He also lifted another trophy with Denver in 2023 after eliminating the Lakers in the conference finals. Familiarity? Check.<\/p>\n

A Dip But Not Done<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last season with the Magic, Caldwell-Pope posted his lowest scoring average since his rookie campaign. He put up 8.7 points on shaky 43.9\/34.2\/86.3 splits. His three-point shooting dipped to its lowest mark since year three. However, context matters. The Magic\u2019s cramped spacing didn\u2019t help his outside shooting.<\/p>\n

When the floor opens, Caldwell-Pope thrives. He shot 38% from deep with the Lakers, over 41% with Denver<\/a>, and 39% with Washington<\/a>. There\u2019s enough evidence to believe last season was an outlier.<\/p>\n

Money Talks, Timing Kills<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Caldwell-Pope still has two years on his declining deal with a player option. The Lakers’ pursuit of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope likely hit a wall because the team wants max cap space for 2026. Any move that eats into that flexibility won\u2019t happen unless it\u2019s an absolute must.<\/p>\n

The Lakers were serious about adding Caldwell-Pope but timing killed it. Marcus Smart<\/a> arrived instead<\/a>. The Lakers believe he solves their defense-first backcourt need for now.<\/p>\n

Never Say Never<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For now, the door on the Lakers and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope reunion is shut. But things change fast in Los Angeles. If injuries or roster gaps appear, the front office might pick up the phone again. Caldwell-Pope knows how to win here. That alone makes him a name to watch if the Lakers want one more push.<\/p>\n

Smart roster moves now mean bigger swings later. For now, the Lakers bet on Smart. But the Caldwell-Pope chapter isn\u2019t fully closed. In Hollywood, sequels always get pitched.<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles Lakers have moved aggressively this offseason. Even as they see LeBron James as an expiring asset, they want to build a contender around him and Luka Don\u010di\u0107. At the same time, they aim to maintain cap flexibility for next summer. This balancing act pushed the Lakers toward trade talks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":151238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,26,32,3,4721],"tags":[50219,1105,4557],"class_list":["post-151616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-grizzlies","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-2025-nba-free-agents","tag-kentavious-caldwell-pope","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151623,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151616\/revisions\/151623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}