According to a report from CBS Sports, Ed Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers is seeking a deal that would get him $7M-$10M per year.
Ed Davis has decided to bypass his player option for the next season and become a free agent this summer. When he first came to LA, he signed a huge bargain deal. Now, he wants to get the money that he thinks he deserves.
Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News had this to say:
“I definitely want to be back,” Davis said in an interview with Los Angeles News Group. “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.”
The 26-year-old Davis represented a rare bright spot in the Lakers’ 2014-15 season that ended with a 21-61 record, the team’s worst mark in franchise history. After Davis posted career-highs in scoring (8.3 points a game), field-goal percentage (60.1), rebounding (7.6), blocked shots (1.2) and assists (1.2) in his fifth season, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said, “We’d love to have Ed Davis on our team.”
Davis declined to outline the terms of his preferred contract in length and dollar amount. But 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.
Davis expressed preference for joining a playoff team, which he believes the Lakers will become next season. And Davis sounded eager to make up for lost earnings after experiencing a five-year career that he called “up and down” and chalked up to “bad luck.”
Ed Davis did prove he can be effective in the limited role that he played. However, this team will have Julius Randle coming back next season and most likely either Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns from the draft this Thursday. So, even if he does re-sign, he might not have much of a chance to move up into a starter’s role. I couldn’t see Davis getting the kind of money he wants though with all of these other players that have either the same or a better skill set than his.
