3 marksmen that could snag the final Lakers roster spot
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers have one of the worst rosters in the league when it comes to three-point shooting and it is a problem. The three-ball has become such an important part of today’s game, especially when you have LeBron James as the nucleus of your franchise.
With one roster spot remaining, Rob Pelinka and the front office need to ensure that they are bringing in help from beyond the three-point line. If not, the team is risking the poor floor spacing that they had last year but even worse without having Malik Monk, Carmelo Anthony and Wayne Ellington.
Luckily for Los Angeles, they have options to add three-point shooting to their currently unbalanced roster. In no particular order, let’s break down those options for the purple and gold.
The 3 marksmen that could snag the final Lakers roster spot:
1. Matt Ryan
The Los Angeles Lakers recently signed Matt Ryan to a training camp deal, likely due to his shooting ability. Ryan does not have much experience in the NBA but his G League experience last season is tantalizing, to say the least.
Ryan shot a staggering 40% from beyond the arc in the G League last season while attempting 9.4 threes per game. While the G League obviously is not even close to NBA competition, the only players to do that in NBA history are Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard.
Not only can Ryan shoot, but he directly plays the position the Lakers need the most at this point in time: small forward. Los Angeles is really lacking wings and while he has no NBA experience, he still would fill a positional hole for the Lakers.
That being said, there is a younger option that the team could be higher on for the final roster spot, as well as another relatively young option that actually has NBA experience and has shot well at the NBA level, unlike Ryan.