Los Angeles Lakers: 3 free agency mistakes Rob Pelinka has made
By Jason Reed
2. The Los Angeles Lakers signing Kent Bazemore
It is really easy to sit here and talk yourself into every single signing that the Los Angeles Lakers made as being a good signing. Every single fanbase does it. Every free agent that their team signs or every prospect that they draft is going to be great, with fans often just looking at the best-case scenario.
In the case of the Lakers this offseason, you can legitimately be happy with most of the players that they signed. Sure, they did not get some great sixth man, but considering the circumstances, they hit a home run with the players that they convinced to come to LA.
The one player that I am not a huge fan of and I think will end up playing himself out of rotations is Kent Bazemore. You could make the case for any of the old wings (Carmelo Anthony, Trevor Ariza) to regress but I believe that Bazemore will be the one.
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While Bazemore had a good shooting season with the Golden State Warriors last season, historically, he is not that reliable of a three-point shooter. He shot just 34.4% from three the season before and 32% the season before that.
He is a career 35.6% shooter, which is fine, but more indicative of his boom or bust seasons when it comes to shooting the basketball.
Bazemore is just inefficient offensively and does not do much more than shooting, which is up in the air. Defensively he is solid and will be serviceable for the Lakers, but there is a real path to Bazemore being another version of Wesley Matthews that simply disappoints.
It would not be a mistake if there was not a better move on the table, which in my opinion, there was.