Lakers to sign 2016 first-round pick

The Lakers have agreed to sign free agent forward Taurean Prince, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Prince cleared waivers today after being waived by the Timberwolves on Wednesday.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), Prince’s deal with the Lakers will be worth $4.5M for one year.

Los Angeles intends to use its bi-annual exception to complete the signing, which would leave the full mid-level exception available, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Using the BAE will hard-cap the Lakers at the first tax apron ($172.3M) in 2023-24.

Prince was a reliable rotation piece in Minnesota for the last two years. In 123 games since the start of the 2021-22 season, he has averaged 8.1 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 19.3 minutes per night, with a solid shooting line of .460/.378/.799.

However, the Wolves ultimately decided that Prince’s $7.46M salary for 2023-24 was a higher price than they wanted to pay and waived him before that money became fully guaranteed.

Prince had been the No. 37 player on our list of this year’s top 50 free agents.