4 Fringe Lakers players who deserve to return next season

4. Maxwell Lewis

The second rookie on our list, Maxwell Lewis appeared in 34 games for the Lakers this year. However, when he did get on the floor, he was earning even less minutes per night than Jalen Hood-Schifino. Maxwell played just 3.0 minutes on average in his first season in the NBA.

Once again, that makes it somewhat hard to evaluate what exactly he brings to the table and how valuable he should be considered moving forward. One thing we know for certain is that Lewis has good size at 6-foot-7 and his ability to play as a wing can give him tremendous upside in a league as versatile as the NBA.

Like Hood-Schifino, Lewis spent a good amount of time this past season with the South Bay Lakers. There, he really impressed with his scoring ability and seemed to operate smoothly within the flow of the game at both ends of the floor.

There is hardly anything from the NBA side of things from this past season that says Maxwell is a surefire future rotation player. But the Lakers took a chance on him for a reason, and there is also no sense in giving up this fast. LA would do best to bring him back for at least the 2024-25 season as well.