Los Angeles Lakers: Free agents to replace Avery Bradley if he leaves
By Jason Reed
2. Kent Bazemore
The Los Angeles Lakers have had success in bringing back a former Laker in Dwight Howard, so maybe they need to take a page out of that book and do the same with Kent Bazemore, who was a Laker for 23 games in the 2013-14 season.
Bazemore is not a direct replacement for Bradley as he fits the shooting guard/small forward archetype. However, again, with LeBron essentially acting as the point guard in the offense the Lakers are just fine having a non-traditional look in the backcourt.
Bazemore is not as good as a defender as Holiday but his advanced metrics are similar to that of Bradley. Bradley has a 0.5 DBPM this season while Bazemore is at 0.4. He is a solid on-ball and off-ball defender, averaging 1.1 steals per game.
Bazemore has not been great from three this season but he has shown that he can be really good from beyond the arc. He is shooting 34.4 percent in the season as a whole but has shot 38.4 percent on 2.9 attempts since joining the Sacramento Kings.
Having his defense on the perimeter as well as the threat of him as an off-ball shooter would be nice for the Lakers and would help replace the potential loss of Bradley.