6 Lakers who definitely won’t be back next season
By Jason Reed
5. Troy Brown Jr.
LeBron James and Klutch Sports absolutely have an impact on the decisions that the Lakers make, regardless of how much the team tries to deny it. That was evident last summer when the first three free agents signed were all Klutch clients.
Those three free agents were Walker, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Troy Brown Jr. While the signings were inconsequential, the fact that the team so quickly signed Klutch guys shows that there is some kind of collaboration there.
That collaboration likely won’t keep Brown in LA as the Lakers have better fish to fry and can, quite frankly, improve. Brown showed enough with the Lakers to get him a new contract somewhere else next season but it likely won’t be in Los Angeles.
Troy Brown Jr’s playoff minutes for the Lakers tell the entire story
Brown’s role in the rotation for the Lakers started off well against the Memphis Grizzlies and slowly went down as the playoffs went along. By the time the Lakers got into the thick of the playoffs, Brown became someone who Darvin Ham only called upon in garbage time.
Not every regular-season rotation guy is going to play in the playoffs and Brown still has value as a regular-season player to the right team. That team is not the Lakers, who would benefit more from a better defender and a more reliable shooter in his place.