Lakers: 5 Roster Moves To Help Salvage The Season
By Jacob Rude
1. Waive Wesley Johnson
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This should absolutely be priority number one. Wesley Johnson has done nothing this season to warrant keeping his starting spot. The only reason he still does have it is the fact that he has been the only small forward healthy on the team.
While he is averaging 8.2 points per game, those numbers are often inflated by garbage time buckets. His 41.3% field goal shooting and 32.1% three-point shooting are more indicative of his play this year.
The big news (and hope) on Johnson coming into this season was his defensive potential. As a very athletic and long player, he has the physical tools to be a solid defensive player, but that’s where the majority of his game starts and ends. Johnson fails to put his physical gifts into something productive on the court.
The Lakers have given Johnson over a year, giving him more starts than any other team in his career. For fans, it’s clear that Johnson not starting small forward in the NBA. The Johnson experiment needs to end.
With the Lakers in need of cutting a player to sign another, Johnson may not be the natural selection considering his guaranteed contract. However, considering the Lakers aren’t even in the luxury tax, it’s safe to say they’d have no worries paying Johnson paying Johnson to not play on this team.