We knew last week that Yi Jianlian was going to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers, but what we didn’t know was how much he would eventually make over the course of the season.
The Lakers officially signed Jianlian on Monday, and thanks to Yahoo Sports’ NBA salary pages, we now know the details of his compensation and how it will affect the cap (h/t Dan Feldman of NBC Sports).
Jianlian is only guaranteed $250,000 of his $8 million salary, and he will count against the Lakers’ cap for the full amount of the latter number. Jianlian’s “likely” incentives are worth $6,860,877 this season, although precisely what those incentives are remain unknown at this time.
The huge amount of non-guaranteed money is essentially a “get out of jail free” card for the Lakers, because it means should things not work out with Jianlian they can waive him with very little financial penalty. The team obviously hopes this deal will work out, but the unconventional structure of it offers them protection if it doesn’t.
