Lakers: What Tyler Ennis Brings to the Team

The Los Angeles Lakers made an unexpected move by shipping Marcelo Huertas to Houston before Thursday’s trade deadline.

In his second move as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations, Magic Johnson traded Marcelo Huertas to the Houston Rockets for Tyler Ennis. While the move was primarily a salary dump for the Rockets to free up salary cap space for the post-deadline buyout market, the move also gives the Lakers a chance to give a former first round pick some run time.

Ennis was taken with the No. 18 pick in the 2014 draft by the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers will be his fourth team in three years and he has not been given to the opportunity see the court very much. Out of a possible 222 games in his career, he has only played in 110. Averaging 11.5 minutes, 3.5 points, 1.8 assists and 1.2 rebounds in those contests.

These numbers do not give much reason to expect a lot of Ennis. Then again, his numbers might have been so underwhelming because of the situations he was in. He was a young player on teams vying for the playoffs in Milwaukee and Houston and in Phoenix, he was stuck behind Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas.

As for what to expect his on-court production to be for the Lakers, Ennis has not been a great shooter in the NBA so far. With career splits of 40.8 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from three and 72.7 percent from the free throw line, per basketball-reference.com. However, Ennis has not shown a strong ability to create for others. In other words, he is not going to be able to provide a boost to the now Lou Williams-less offense.

On the defensive side of the ball, he has only amassed 49 steals in his career and does not possess elite size for a guard at 6-foot-3 and 194 pounds, meaning the Lakers have not found the answer for the defensive woes that have plagued them all season.