Who's A Better Fit For The Lakers: JR Smith Or Dion Waiters?

Just when everybody thought the Los Angeles Lakers were done making moves and their roster was all set, they waived Troy Daniels and opened up a spot for reinforcements before the playoffs.

Thus, there’s been a lot of speculation regarding who the Lakers should sign, considering they’ve been tied with a move for Dion Waiters and JR Smith over the past couple of weeks.

And now that both players have reportedly worked out for the purple and gold, it seems imminent that one of them’s going to end up joining Frank Vogel’s team.

But, which one would be a better fit for the lakers? they clearly need another stopper, but they’re also craving another ball-handler and a guy that could create his own offense, shoot off the dribble, and knock down shots from deep.

Both of these players check most of those boxes, at least on the eye test. However, we all know these guys have a history and a reputation in this league that must not be ignored.

JR Smith and Dion Waiters have both played with LeBron James. Notably, both of them have had some issues with him, although Smith and he have a strong relationship.

Smith is a much better option when it comes to defense and sharpshooting. He’s a solid backcourt stopper and has shot 37% from deep per his career to go along with 12.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.0 steals, and 2.0 three-pointers per game.

Waiters has had problems embracing a lesser role in the offense over his career. He’s a much more dynamic scorer than Smith and a better ballhandler, but he’s also more volatile and harder to control.

Also, efficiency has always been an issue with him, as he’s a career 41% shooter (34% from deep and 69% from the line), so perhaps it’ll be better for the Lakers to avoid signing him.

This season, he roughly averaged 9.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.7 three-pointers and 1.0 assists per game.

As a matter of fact, even Clinton Yates of ESPN’s The Jump thinks adding Waiters into the mix may end up being problematic for them:

“I don’t want to go anti-Dion Waiters here but I’m going to. I think that you don’t put him in that locker room in this situation. I think with JR Smith he’s been out of the league for a while but who’s going to motivate him better than LeBron coming into that scenario? I like JR Smith’s game and what he can provide but I just don’t trust Dion Waiters”, Yates claimed.

The Lakers have been doing pretty good this season. They sit at the top of the Western Conference and are en route to clinch homecourt advantage in the West, so they’ll definitely want to think this one through.