Ranking each Lakers free agency signing by impact next season
By Jason Reed
4. Juan Toscano-Anderson
There were several free agents last season that the Los Angeles Lakers should have signed that went to the Golden State Warriors. I will never get over the Lakers missing a very obvious great fit in Otto Porter, but it is what it is.
Instead, the Lakers ended up with two rotation players from the Warriors that ended up playing poorly. Kent Bazemore came over and stunk his way out of the rotation quickly while Avery Bradley was a preseason addition who eventually (thankfully) was played out of the rotation.
Hopefully, the same fate does not strike the Lakers a third time with Juan Toscano-Anderson, who is coming off of a championship season with the Warriors. There is not much to get excited about with Anderson, so don’t expect him to completely flip the switch.
Toscano-Anderson did not have a big role in last season’s team as he averaged just 13.6 minutes during the regular season and 3.5 minutes in the playoffs. He was not very good in his limited time on the court last season as his three-point percentage plummeted to 32.2%.
The one good thing about Toscano-Anderson is that he can play sound defense, so he is going to carve out a role in the rotation in some capacity. If he can turn his three-point shot around and shoot 40.2% from three like he did the following season, he could be a much more impactful role player.
Right now, he checks in third with the potential to grow even higher. That being said, the baseline impact still is not very high.