Lakers working out this veteran point guard is disappointing

The Los Angeles Lakers have made five total free agent signings thus far this offseason with only a handful of moves left to make. A Kyrie Irving trade is hanging in the balance and that could impact the number of players on the roster, but right now, the team has just two open roster spots.

Granted, the Lakers could always waive certain players to make room if they absolutely need to but it is safe to say that the team is making its last rounds of free-agent signings in the coming weeks.

Thus far, the team has prioritized bringing in youth after being one of the oldest rosters in the league last season. This has been a welcomed sign as last year’s roster was awful, which is obvious considering none of the significant role players from last season have been signed yet.

While veteran help is not a bad point at this stage with so much youth on the roster, it is still important that the Lakers maximize the roster spots they have remaining. That is why it is disappointing that the team is working out (and potentially considering) signing 34-year-old Darren Collison.

Why the Lakers working out Darren Collison is disappointing:

The Los Angeles Lakers are all-too-familiar with Darren Collison. The team was linked to him prior to his initial retirement from the league and brought him back this past season on a 10-day hardship provision contract.

Collison proved in his short time with the Lakers that retiring from the league and coming back in your 30s is not the easiest thing to do. After two years away, the veteran point guard averaged 12.3 minutes across three games played and did not play well… at all.

He averaged 1.3 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game while shooting 28.6% from the field and zero percent from three. Granted, it was a small sample size and numbers are not fair to small sample sizes, but fans who watched those three games know how ugly it looked.

It is more about the precedent as well. While not every signing should be a young player just for the sake of it, the Lakers should still be targeting young players where available. There are better backup point guards that are available on the market, and quite frankly, Collison does not add that same veteran presence that someone like Jared Dudley did.

Heck, it would be significantly better for the Lakers to take the risk on a former lottery pick who could potentially be an elite defender for the team. At least with that signing, there is legitimate upside that can be cashed in on. What is the upside with Collison?

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Of course, a workout does not mean anything is set in stone and hopefully, this closed-door session helped show the Lakers that Collison simply is not someone who the team should be interested in this offseason.