The Los Angeles Lakers and guard Max Christie agreed to terms on a four-year, $32 million contract in the offseason. The deal was agreed to in the final hours before free agency officially began, taking advantage of a new rule allowing teams to get a head start in negotiating with their own players.
This meant that Christie did not get to experience full restricted free agency, as he technically never hit the open market. However, his agents may have done work to gauge his market and ultimately decided that the Lakers were the best bet, giving Christie a hint of what it’s like to be an NBA free agent.
The third-year guard spoke about his time in restricted free agency, what he liked about it and why he ultimately decided to return to L.A. on a four-year deal, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“It was cool. It was my first time ever experiencing any sort of free agency. Obviously as a kid growing up and then my first two years I’ve seen some teammates and a lot of guys go through it, and I never knew how it really worked. And then this summer was my first time ever really actually going through it. And it was fun, it was good. The back-and-forth negotiations, it was pretty mutual between me and Coach Redick and Rob [Pelinka]. So we were all trying to get on the same page, because I wanted to be a Laker. I wanted to come back and be a part of it, I think we have a really good team. And so I wanted to be a part of that. It was cool. We wanted to get it done before free agency started just to get rid of all that turmoil and stuff, so I’m glad we reached an agreement right before it started. We knocked all that out and now we’re good to go.”
Christie is expected to play a bigger role in 2024-25 than he did last season. At the moment, it serves as one of the major differences between the Lakers’ rotation from last season to this one. And it seemed as though it was a priority on both sides to ensure that Christie returned to L.A.
Max Christie excited to compete against brother
As Max Christie starts coming into his own as an NBA player, his younger brother Cam was recently drafted by the L.A. Clippers. This adds a new wrinkle to the Battle of L.A. with one Christie on each team.
Max admits it is going to be cool to compete against Cam while also watching him play when they are not facing each other.
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