Lakers Free Agency 2016: 5 Cheap Players to Target

5. Andrew Nicholson (Unrestricted)

Coming into the offseason at the very beginning, there was actually a pretty widely supported belief that Andrew Nicholson might not be that available to anyone in free agency. However, the Orlando Magic changed that in a big way when they elected to not give Nicholson a qualifying offer, thus making him an unrestricted free agent and much more of a target for teams like the Lakers.

The first thing that you have to like about Nicholson is that he’s still relatively young at just 26 years old. While that puts him a bit ahead of players like Russell, Brandon Ingram, Clarkson, Randle, and the young core in LA, he’s still a young player with the potential to really make an impact as part of a bench unit. He showed throughout his time with the Magic that he can at least do that offensively.

While his defense and rebounding are suspect at time, the former Magic forward has the ability to do some very nice things on offense as a highly versatile threat. In only 14.7 minutes per game last season, the big forward averaged 6.9 points per game while also showing the ability to step out and knock down jump shots from the four. When you think about the questionable jumpers of players like Randle and Nance, slotting a player like Nicholson behind them to throw multiple looks at defenses could be an interesting move for the Lakers.

Next: No. 4 Troy Daniels