The reason why the Lakers aren't after Buddy Hield anymore is they won't try for a trade

The Los Angeles Lakers had a strong offseason, this time around, the GM Rob Pelinka and coach Darvin Ham had a plan and a strategy, unlike last season they weren't able to build a strong time.

On this occasion, the Lakers bet on continuity brought back last season's core, and got upgrades in specific roles. The last big signing of the summer was Christian Wood and the team is set to go to training camp.

Now that the team seems to be built, the news broke of Buddy Hield being available, a shooting guard, the Lakers GM Rob Pelinka has long been pursuing, but now it could be a little too late.

The reason why the Lakers can't make the trade is that after the strong offseason, they don't have players to trade. Also, a couple of rules prevent them from going after Hield. The Lakers are over the cap but under the first apron, meaning they can only receive up to 125% of their outgoing salary in a trade. This means that if they sent out $10 million in a trade, they could only receive $12.5 million back.

The Lakers also deal with a hard cap

The Lakers are also dealing with a hard cap and sit about $5 million underneath that spending limit. This means that the Lakers cannot afford to take on significant money in any trade as they cannot exceed the hard cap.