Los Angeles Lakers: Why signing Mike James would be a colossal mistake
By Jason Reed
1. Mike James would add literally nothing to the Los Angeles Lakers
You can find value in most free agents if you look hard enough. It might be a very niche area of the game or be thing off the court that makes the team better. Mike James has none of those things. He would add nothing to the Los Angeles Lakers.
From a basketball perspective, he does not do the things that the Lakers need their role players to do this season. The Lakers need their role players to shoot threes and play defense (both are preferred). James is not good at either.
James is a career 28.7% three-point shooter in the NBA and has not been great in international play either despite having much more time outside of the NBA than in it. In his 140 games played internationally, he has shot 34.1% from deep.
That is not great and his defense is even worse. James is on the smaller side of NBA guards and has not played good defense at all in his short time in the league. He posted a -2.2 Defensive Box Plus/Minus in 13 games with the Nets last season and has a career DBPM of -1.3.
In the playoffs, he was literally worth negative value. He played 103 minutes and accumulated -0.1 win shares.
James just is not that good of an NBA option. It would be a wasted roster space. At least someone like Jared Dudley brings his positive locker room presence and some veteran leadership. It is had to see James adding anything of that caliber.