3 standout 2022 signings that should’ve been Lakers

To say that the Los Angeles Lakers are struggling to start the 2022-23 season is an understatement. Los Angeles has not gotten out to the kind of start that it was hoping for and the 2022-23 season might become a lost year before it even gets off the ground.

The more the team loses the less likely it is that they will make a move for someone, even with there being some promising options in non-Russell Westbrook trade packages. This should have all been predictable after the summer the team had but it still feels like a shock for fans.

Making matters worse is the fact that there were promising free agents who made a lot of sense on this team at the time that Rob Pelinka did not sign, likely because they are not Klutch clients. While these free agents would not have completely changed the team alone, the overall philosophy of bringing in better free agents (like these) would have.

Here are 3 standout signings from 2022 that should have been Lakers:

1. Yuta Watanabe

There were two things that the Lakers desperately lacked all offseason and did not address. They lacked wings and they lacked three-point shooting. You would have thought that the team would try to add both of those things with cheap free-agent signings if they could but that would have been too easy.

Someone like Yuta Watanabe would have made so much sense on this Lakers roster but instead, the team decided to sign Klutch guys like Juan Toscano-Anderson. The Brooklyn Nets have been an absolute mess this season (like the Lakers) but at least have one bright spot in Watanabe.

Watanabe does not play a big role for the Nets but he makes his presence felt when he is on the court. On top of playing great defense, the six-nine small forward is shooting 54.5% on 2.2 threes in 16 minutes per game. In LA, he would probably be playing 20-22 minutes and could be making 2-3 shots from beyond the arc a night.

Wow, this team could have benefitted from a three-and-D wing. Who would have thought?