2 elite defensive guards the Lakers can sign for the minimum

2. Kris Dunn

If Delon Wright does end up getting a bigger market than expected and the Los Angeles Lakers cannot sign him for the minimum then they still have Kris Dunn to fall back on. Dunn almost certainly will be available for the minimum and quite frankly, the Lakers should sign both of these guys if they can.

Dunn’s career has taken a turn for the worse over the last two seasons and it is really a shame as he was coming off the best year of his career in 2019-20. Dunn, who has a career DBPM of 1.3, posted an extremely high 3.1 DBPM with the Chicago Bulls. That is up there with Matisse Thybulle as the upper echelon of elite numbers for a guard.

Dunn averaged two steals in 24.9 minutes per game that season. Like Wright (and Caruso), he too is someone who has the baseline defensive ability and simply puts in the effort on every single play to make a difference for his team.

The problem with Dunn is two-fold. First, like Wright, he is limited offensively and even after his big season that limited him to a small contract. Second is that the last two seasons have not been kind to Dunn.

Dunn played just four games during the 2020-21 season and 14 games last season. A wrist injury kept him out for most of the 2020-21 season and then teams seemed to forget about him this past season.

The Lakers can use that to their advantage, though, as it makes Dunn a legitimate minimum signing. And while there is always the chance that he is never the same guy, the potential pay-off, if he does return to his old self, is way too high to ignore.

Dunn is still only 28 years old, after all.