When the Los Angeles Lakers lost Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency, it seemed to be a complete mess. But based on his comments at Houston Rockets Media Day, he may have already had one foot out the door. It was still a brutal situation, but it doesn’t look quite as bad following his comments about heading to Houston.
"I'm just getting used to everything being 30 minutes away,” Finney-Smith said on Media Day, via ClutchFans on Twitter. “My family loves Texas. Get back to some of that Texas barbecue. Just trying to find out the difference between Houston and Dallas. I've been hearing Houston is a lot better than Dallas."
Now, Finney-Smith will wear red, and the Lakers have moved on.
Why did Dorian Finney-Smith leave Lakers?
The Lakers added Finney-Smith last season, sending D’Angelo Russell to the Brooklyn Nets. Finney-Smith, a former teammate of Luka Doncic on the Dallas Mavericks, ended up being an important piece of the puzzle in LA.
He shot the ball very well for the Lakers, though his efficiency tailed off in the postseason. However, he did play heavy minutes, averaging 34.0 minutes per contest in the Lakers’ five playoff games against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Unfortunately, Finney-Smith’s brief time in LA came to an ugly end based on the reporting that came out this summer, when the veteran forward hit unrestricted free agency.
According to Anthony Irwin of ClutchPoints, Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was telling people around the league that Finney-Smith’s knee is in a bad place, but it got back to Finney-Smith. Not a great look.
Plus, Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported that the Lakers decided to save cap space for 2027 instead of re-signing Finney-Smith: “Though Finney-Smith was a popular locker room figure and helped the Lakers to a 14-6 record in the 20 games he started in the regular season, L.A. exercised discipline in its negotiations to preserve cap space for 2027, when the team expects to have space to sign a max-salary free agent.”
Finney-Smith, who is good friends with Doncic, won’t be back in LA next year, and the Lakers have nobody but themselves to blame.
However, his comments at Media Day tell somewhat of a different story. It sounds like Finney-Smith was always interested in heading to Texas this summer, though perhaps that choice was swayed by the way he was treated on his way out the door.
And that’s certainly not ideal.