Former Los Angeles Lakers guard Jordan Goodwin has been playing great for the Phoenix Suns this year, and it may make the Lakers a bit regretful for letting him walk. He’s hurt right now, but before he got injured, he was one of the key players in Jordan Ott’s rotation, playing for a Suns team that has been one of the most fun stories around the NBA this year.
Obviously, the Lakers have a lot of guards on their roster. And when Goodwin was in town, he wasn’t perfect. But he was an impactful player then, and he’s still an impactful player now. The Lakers should have kept him around and trusted their developmental team.
Instead, he’s not playing great basketball for the Suns.
As noted, Goodwin is hurt right now. He’s dealing with a calf injury and hasn’t appeared in a game for the Suns since February 21. But before that, he was playing well.
In his last nine games before going down with an injury, Goodwin was playing 25.6 minutes per contest, earning one start in the process.
During the course of those nine games, Goodwin averaged 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 2.0 steals while shooting 45.2% from the field and 43.4% from deep on 5.9 three-point attempts per contest.
Not only was he giving the Suns great minutes on the defensive end of the court, but he was also a reliable threat from three-point land, supporting Devin Booker.
He could be doing the same thing for Doncic right now, but the Lakers let him go. Originally, he signed an Exhibit 10 deal (effectively a training camp contract) before the start of the 2024-25 campaign, but he was waived before the start of the season.
Then, they inked him to a two-way contract in February, and at the end of March, the Lakers signed Goodwin to a standard deal for the remainder of the season.
But when last offseason came around, they let Goodwin walk. When, in reality, they should have kept him around as guard depth.
Instead, they chose to sign Marcus Smart. And while Smart is a veteran and a better defender, he’s not nearly as good an offensive player as Goodwin is right now.
Neither is super consistent, but Goodwin is the far better three-point shooter, and that’s a very important skill to have when playing next to Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James.
But the Lakers let Goodwin walk.