Los Angeles Lakers: 3 way-too-early midseason buyout candidates

Garrett Temple

Garrett Temple is the wild card of this list but man would he be nice on the Los Angeles Lakers. As previously mentioned, the Lakers could use that extra wing defender off the bench to really round out that defensive group.

Kyle Kuzma is not a wing. Period. He is a negative on the defensive side of the floor and right now, with how this roster is constructed, he is the team’s option off the bench to be that wing defender. It is not a huge deal and the Lakers will be fine.

But it certainly does not hurt to improve that position down the stretch.

Temple is not an elite defender by any means but he is someone who can provide 10-15 above-average minutes off the bench. Temple is also intriguing due to the fact that he is versatile as a bench player.

The Lakers do not really need this how the roster is currently constructed but Temple does have experience playing the point and acting as a facilitator.

He is a wild-card buyout option because his contract is not that large. However, he is an older player on a poor team (the Chicago Bulls). It very well could be the case that no team is willing to send any future assets for Temple.

If that is the case and he does get bought out then he should absolutely be approached by the Los Angeles Lakers once they realize that Kuzma is not the bench wing that they are hoping for.