Avery Bradley will not be rejoining the Los Angeles Lakers in Orlando.
The Los Angeles Lakers are getting a chance to finish what they started in the 2019-20 season when the NBA resumes in late July. The league will play eight “seeding” games before jumping into the NBA Playoffs, where the Lakers are going most likely to be the first seed in the Western Conference.
One player is not going to be rejoining the Los Angeles Lakers when they return to play — Avery Bradley. There was already speculation that Bradley would not be rejoining the team in Orlando and that was confirmed on Tuesday night.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Bradley was not going to be rejoining the Lakers a day before the deadline for players to inform their teams of their intent. According to Woj, the forefront of Bradley’s decision lies in his family. His six-year-old son struggles from recovering from respiratory illnesses and Bradley does not want to risk anything.
Hats off to Bradley. More power to him and he absolutely should be valuing the health and safety of his family over basketball.
Wojnarowski also reported that J.R. Smith has become the leading candidate to replace Bradley, although that is far from a guarantee. Smith has not played a professional basketball game since November of 2011 and the Lakers have depth in the backcourt to replace Bradley internally if need be.
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If that is the route that the team needs to take then the discussion instantly becomes between fan-favorite Alex Caruso and recent signing Dion Waiters.
We decided to break down the Caruso vs. Waiters debate and the pros and cons of either player getting more minutes to replace Bradley.