Players That the Lakers Should Re-Sign for Next Year
Dec 30, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Wayne Ellington (2) during the game against the Denver Nuggets at Pepsi Center. The Lakers won 111-103. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
When you look at all of the great benches in the NBA, you will notice that most of them feature great three-point shooting. Over the past few years, the Spurs and Heat (LeBron James era) built successful benches simply with long-range marksmen. Wayne Ellington would be a great player for the Lakers to ink up for another year or two for a small amount of money. Once Kobe went down, Ellington was asked to do a whole lot in Byron Scott’s offense, most notably be the go-to scorer in crunch time.
-== Best Lakers Draft Pick & Free Agent Pairings ==-
If played correctly, Ellington can be a solid player off the bench, as he is one of the league’s better three-point shooters. After shooting 42.4% in 2014 with the Dallas Mavericks, Ellington’s percentage dipped to 37% as a Laker, but that can be credited to the fact that there was nobody to create Ellington open looks. Even if Ellington isn’t an ELITE shooter, he is always capable of getting more than hot:
Ellington should not be asked to start for a team and be one of the primary scorers like he was last year, but rather to come off the bench and come off screens for fifteen-ish minutes per game. If the Lakers re-sign Ellington for around two years/five million dollars, they would get a reliable shooter to help build a playoff-caliber bench.
Plus, if the Lakers select Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns, loading the roster with three-point shooters would be a solid option to give Okafor/Towns as much room as possible to work their magic down low.
It was recently reported that the Lakers are expected to exercise their team option on Robert Sacre. Although this won’t take up more than 500,000 of the cap limit, it is still a mystery as to why the Lakers continue to give Sacre money to play basketball. He has made zero progress in his first three years, and even shot 41.2% from the field last year, which given his massive frame and limited playing time is a ridiculously low number.
Next: Is Ed Davis Worth The Money?