4. Wayne Ellington
Personally, I am frustrated with how the Los Angeles Lakers handled Wayne Ellington this season. For two years Ellington was the cheap veteran on the trade market that was tied to the Lakers before the deadline. The Lakers then finally get him back in LA as a free agent and hardly plays him in the rotation.
Ellington was the team’s third-best role-playing three-point shooter this season and the Lakers did not play him as such. Sure, he was not the best defensively but that is not a reason to give Ellington such a small role in the rotation.
I could understand the argument that it was hard to play Ellington next to Malik Monk or Carmelo Anthony because of the defense. However, it is not like Bradley or Talen Horton-Tucker were even playing that good of defense and their offense was so much worse than Ellington’s was as a spot-up shooter.
Based on how he was handled this season, I would imagine that he is not on the priority list for the Lakers to re-sign this summer. The team is going to try to re-sign Monk and Carmelo before Ellington (more on that later) and quite frankly, Ellington should head to another contender that will actually play him more in the rotation.
Ellington’s second stint was just as uneventful as his first and it really should not have been that way. Playing him more would not have made the Lakers a contender, but it could have swung some games and this article would have been published later.