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Los Angeles Lakers: Why re-signing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is excellent

By Daniel Preciado

Oct 9, 2020; Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1) and forward LeBron James (23) go for the ball during the third quarter against the Miami Heat in game five of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 9, 2020; Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA; Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1) and forward LeBron James (23) go for the ball during the third quarter against the Miami Heat in game five of the 2020 NBA Finals at AdventHealth Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Mitchell Leff/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

The Los Angeles Lakers have brought back their third-best player from the playoffs.

According to multiple NBA sources, the Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a three-year, $40 million contract with shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. While he is receiving a longer and more lucrative deal than most imagined, there isn’t a real argument against it.

KCP is one of the longest-tenured Lakers on the roster and it makes sense that Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka wanted to bring him back into the fold.

Caldwell-Pope looked absolutely terrific in the bubble and for most of the time on the floor for the purple and gold, he was their third-best player behind LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The former first-round pick took a giant leap forward in the 2019-2020 season in terms of his shooting efficiency, moving his three-point percentage to 38.5 percent and his field goal percentage to 46.7 percent. Those numbers represented 3.8 percent and 3.7 percent increases from 2018-2019, respectively.

Looking at the advanced statistics, courtesy of Basketball Index, Caldwell-Pope took a giant leap there as well. In 2019-2020, the 27-year-old posted 0.34 O-PIPM (offensive player impact plus-minus) and a subpar -1.04 D-PIPM for the defensive side of things.

While those numbers are not great holistically, they represented a large jump from the respective 0.13 and -2.02 numbers he posted last season. He seemed to get a lot better on the defensive end under Lakers head coach Frank Vogel and that will likely be a continuing trend for as long as they are under contract together.

All in all, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope might be getting paid like an integral part of the Lakers’ core, but that’s because that is exactly what he has developed into. His shooting and defense in the playoffs likely also played into the Lakers’ plans to bring him back, but he is worth the average annual value he is receiving.

If you take a look around the league and see what players are receiving even more than him in free agency, you will be hard-pressed to find some players that are clear-cut better than KCP.

Let’s take a look at the three reasons why Kentavious Caldwell-Pope is a fantastic re-signing.

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