Los Angeles Lakers: Free agents to pivot to after Andre Iguodala spurns LA
By Jason Reed
2. Wesley Matthews
Wesley Matthews was not as good as hoped for when the Los Angeles Lakers signed him last offseason. Matthews was essentially meant to be the replacement for Danny Green, who was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder (then to Philly) for Dennis Schroder.
While Matthews seemingly fit the bill and had the skillset to succeed, he did not have the kind of season that the Lakers were hoping for. He was fine defensively, although not as stout as Green was the year prior, and his three-point shooting could not keep up with even a bad year from Green the year prior.
Despite that, Matthews was trusted in the playoffs and in the play-in game to play some important minutes for the Lakers. His veteran experience obviously meant something to Frank Vogel, who could have went in another direction.
Matthews is still a free agent and with the Lakers missing out on Iguodala it would not be all that surprising to see them simply re-up a player from last year’s team. This team has very little roster turnover and this would at least create some sort of turnover.
Matthews was disappointing last season and his role would be smaller this season. He would log the majority of his minutes as a 2/3 wing and if he can get hot shooting the basketball then he could play himself into the rotation.
He is not guaranteed a lot of minutes but nobody on this team is. With so many veterans, there absolutely is the chance that one veteran thrives and another really struggles, flipping the rotation that we currently see on its head.
Matthews could be someone who benefits from that or he can simply be more depth.