New Lakers role player is already committing long-term to LA

The Los Angeles Lakers have had more roster turnover than any other team in the league. The only players that are still on the roster from the 2020 championship team are Anthony Davis and LeBron James even though the title was won less than two calendar years ago.

Rob Pelinka and the front office have poorly been shuffling the pieces around since then and once again in 2022-23, we see a Lakers roster that has very little continuity from last season. Only LeBron, AD, Russell Westbrook, Wenyen Gabriel and Austin Reaves are still on the roster from last season. Let that sink in.

While role players have historically not lasted very long with the Lakers, there is one new role player that was just brought on this season that is already committing to the team long-term. Forward Juan Toscano-Anderson expressed his desire to play for a long time in LA because of the brand the Lakers possess.

I am not sure if that Lakers brand has been very strong in the last few years as the entire center of the brand is being a winning franchise. Obviously, LA has not been doing much of that the last decade outside of the one championship in 2020.

Juan Toscano-Anderson could make a lot of sense as a long-term role player on the Lakers.

Of course, Juan Toscano-Anderson has to prove that he is worth committing to past this season but there is a good chance that he does that this season. On paper, JTA is a great fit on this Lakers team and is exactly what this team needs.

JTA is coming off of a bad year and if he plays like that again this season then it is going to be hard to pound the table for him to return. However, at his core, he is a three-and-D forward that plays off-ball and defends at an above-average level. If he can do that then LA is going to keep him around long-term.

That being said, if he plays too well we could see him price himself out of Los Angeles. That is exactly what Malik Monk did. Despite Monk’s constant comments that he wanted to stay in LA, he jumped at the payday from the Sacramento Kings, and rightfully so. JTA could follow the same path if he balls out this season.

Absurd hurdle that may have kept Lakers from trading Russell Westbrook

The Los Angeles Lakers ultimately did not trade Russell Westbrook to the Lakers and there may have been an absurd hurdle that stopped a deal.

That being said, the Lakers are actually going to have salary-cap space to bring players back and bring new talent in next offseason. Thus, the odds of JTA actually sticking around are far higher than that of Monk.