Free agency starts tomorrow, as Rob Pelinka and the Lakers will be looking to retain most of their championship roster while looking at the pool of free agents to see if there are better players out there to help them improve going into the 2020-21 season. Pelinka won’t have much of his salary cap to work with after the addition of Dennis Schroder, LeBron James’ existing max contract, and the anticipated max contract that Anthony Davis will get. Pelinka must think that he needs all the available cap space as he can get, as Shams Charania of The Athletic is now reporting that the team has waived Quinn Cook after his lone season with the team.
The Los Angeles Lakers are waiving guard Quinn Cook, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Cook had a non-guaranteed season for 2020-21.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 19, 2020
Quinn Cook was set to make $3 million in the 2020-21 season for the Lakers, but that contract wasn’t fully guaranteed as only $1 million of that $3 million total was guaranteed. This gave the Lakers the right to waive him prior to the season, but they will still have to include $1 million in their salary cap for the 2020-21 season.
It remains to be seen whether or not this is a move in anticipation of an even bigger one that requires all the cap space that Pelinka can muster. It also might just be a move that the Lakers wanted to make in general to give them more cap space while losing a player who probably disappointed the Lakers in regards to what they expected of him. Quinn Cook didn’t play too much for the Lakers, and only really played in blowouts within the Orlando bubble. Overall in the season, Cook averaged 5.1 points, 1.1 assists, and 1.2 rebounds per game while playing 11.5 minutes per game.
Shout out to Cook though, as he grew up a Lakers fan and was very obviously appreciative of the opportunity to play for the team that his late father loved. Cook also showed a lot of emotion when Kobe Bryant died, as he was seen pictured amongst fans outside of Staples Center right after the tragic day. He will play for another team next year after winning his second championship.
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