Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking the 3 best potential buyout options
By Zane Harris
#2: Otto Porter Jr.
The Los Angeles Lakers would get yet another solid scoring option
The second player that the Los Angeles Lakers should keep their eyes on in the buyout market is Otto Porter Jr.
Porter Jr. is on the final year of a four-year contract that amassed him around $105 million. Porter Jr. is another player that is a very solid player, however, he is just on an awful contract for what he brings to a team.
He has found himself in a very dysfunctional Chicago Bulls franchise over the past three seasons that despite having a plethora of young talent has not done much to progress and grow them as players.
However, if he were to be bought out and join the Los Angeles Lakers, he would be apart of one of if not the best franchises in the entire NBA. Playing with LeBron James would give Porter Jr. the opportunity to see some of the most open shots he has seen in his career.
This would be a role that Porter Jr. would thrive in. While on the Bulls, he has been an afterthought of the offensive game plan. The team caters much more to Zach LaVine and players that the team used lottery picks on like Lauri Markkanen, Coby White, and Patrick Williams.
While with Chicago, he did not play with too many great facilitators and with the ball not being fed to him, he was more or less left out to dry with the Bulls.
With the Lakers, Porter Jr. would also not be anywhere near the focal point of the team’s offense, however, in Los Angeles, he would be playing alongside arguably the best facilitator of all time.
Porter Jr. would be a great threat to stand along the three-point arc and snipe wide-open shots from three. This seems to be a role that he would be very well in. This season, he is shooting 40% from three and over his eight-year career he has shot 40.4% from three.
Lastly, Porter Jr. would be a great addition to the team on the defensive side of the ball. He has a build that allows him to guard any wing in the league. This is something that will be essential once the playoffs begin and the Lakers will be forced to play against wing-dominant teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and the Brooklyn Nets.
Over his career, Porter Jr. has averaged a defensive rating of 107. When considering that lack of team defense that is currently played in Chicago, the fact that his defensive rating has stayed semi-respectable speaks to the level of individual defense that he is capable of playing.