Los Angeles Lakers: 3 under-the-radar free agents to consider
By Jason Reed
1. Garrison Mathews
Garrison Mathews may not be as under the radar as the other players on this list but he is certainly far from being a household name. Dan Favale of Bleacher Report ranks him as the fifth-best remaining free agent on the market but I would not be surprised if most fans reading this either haven’t heard of him or have heard very little about him.
There is nothing wrong with that, either. I mean, c’mon, it is the Washington Wizards. Unless you are an overall NBA nut I don’t think many Laker fans were watching many Wizards games last season.
The appeal with Mathews is his shooting stroke. He has done so in a small capacity but he has been a very solid shooter in his short NBA career. He has essentially played a full season, playing a combined 82 games the last two seasons, and has shot 38.9% from beyond the arc on three attempts per game.
That is really all he has done thus far in his NBA career and that is fine. He is an off-ball two-guard who is a catch-and-shoot target to dish the ball out to. There is nothing wrong with the Lakers adding more depth in that regard.
One of the biggest concerns around the Lakers’ roster this season is the age of the team and this would help even out the roster a bit. Mathews is only 24 years old and if the Lakers play their cards right this could be a multi-season partnership with the former Lipscomb Bison.