Los Angeles Lakers: 3 early targets for the mid-level exception

By Jason Reed | Jun 22, 2021

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(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

2. Otto Porter

While we are touching on players who spent time with the Orlando Magic last season we might as well bring up Otto Porter. Porter was a key piece in the Nikola Vucevic trade as his salary allowed the deal to work and now he is an unrestricted free agent.

Porter was a prime buyout candidate but Orlando never pulled the trigger and bought him out for whatever reason. Perhaps they have long-term plans of keeping him around but they could have saved some money and done the agent a favor by buying him out and letting him sign with a contender.

At the end of the day, he finished his contract with Orlando and is now a prime MLE target. That is where his value is and it certainly is not where his old contract was.

Porter is the perfect example of a player who got so grossly overpaid that he became underrated in the league. Some may say that Porter is not even worth an MLE deal but that is simply clouded judgment since he did not live up to that massive contract.

Porter is a serviceable defender while being one of the sneaky-best three-point shooters in the league. He does not take them too often, but he is shooting 40.2% across his entire career from beyond the arc.

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