2021 Lakers Season In Review: Who is coming back next season?

NBA free agency is officially set to begin on Aug. 2, and when it starts, the Lakers will have quite a few players testing the market for their services. Of the 17 players on the 2020-21 roster, only six have any years remaining on their contract.

Those players (and their 2021-22 salaries) are as follows:

• LeBron James ($41.2 million, guaranteed)
• Anthony Davis ($35.4 million, guaranteed)
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope ($13 million guaranteed)
• Kyle Kuzma ($13 million guaranteed)
• Marc Gasol ($2.6 million guaranteed)
• Alfonzo McKinnie ($1.9 million guaranteed)

Additionally, Montrezl Harrell has a player option worth $9.7 million that he could opt into to return, and Luol Deng’s cap hold that was created when the Lakers stretched his contract will enter it’s final year on the team’s books for $4.9 million.

Beyond that, the Lakers have quite a few roster spots to fill, so in lieu of normal season reviews that simply look back at the year that was, our annual look backs will also ask a simple question: “Should the Lakers bring this player back?” As free agency rapidly approaches, this is the main question the team will have to ask about basically every player not named LeBron James or Anthony Davis, and so it’s a worthwhile thought exercise.

In the automatically updating feed below, you can keep track of our daily podcasts and articles breaking down what each Laker from last season’s roster brought to the team, whether we think they’ll be back, and whether we think they should be (sometimes two entirely different questions).

So bookmark this page and check back daily, Monday through Friday, in the weeks leading up to free agency for new analysis in written and audio form every single day.

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