3 players who have earned new contracts with the Los Angeles Lakers

3. Wayne Ellington

This inclusion may come as a bit of a surprise as Wayne Ellington is someone who flew under the radar last season on the Los Angeles Lakers and did not make the kind of mark that Monk and Carmelo did off the bench.

Ellington also did not play as much as those two and did not play as much as he should have. Ellington finished the season averaging 18.8 minutes per game and shot 38.9% from beyond the arc. The Lakers probably should have utilized him a bit more last season.

Yes, Ellington is just another shooter who did not play good defense and that made it really hard for the team to consistently play him next to Monk or Carmelo as that was too many defensive holes on the team. However, the Lakers were so bad defensively last season anyway, it would have been nice to see the team strut out a LeBron-AD and three shooters lineup when the two were healthy.

Even in his smaller role, Ellington did do enough to get another contract with the Lakers. He shot the three as well as the team needed him to and while his defense certainly was not good, he does have more defensive potential than Monk and Carmelo.

There is nothing wrong with having shooting depth. So even if he is the 10th man in the rotation and only plays 15 minutes per game next season, having that depth is important. There is always going to be someone who is cold and someone who is hot and who knows, Ellington could get hot at the right time and earn himself a bigger role in LA.

Unless Ellington simply does not want to return to the Lakers, it would be silly to let him walk in free agency.