The Los Angeles Lakers had a terrible 2021/22 NBA season, failing to even make the play-in tournament after they were deemed championship favorites. Their Big 3 of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook couldn’t get things going due to injuries and a bad fit, ruining the team’s chances to make some noise in the West.
Added to that, the front office assembled a squad with several veterans that didn’t bring the spark that the Lakers needed in plenty of games during the regular season. Most of them are now free agents, trying to find their way back to the league.
Recently, Jovan Buha of The Athletic spoke about this, pointing out that seven players from the Los Angeles Lakers rotation last season are now looking for a new team, and it’s unclear if they will get a new opportunity in the league. Redditor “lopea182” mentioned these players and added the time they spent on the court.
Here’s some of the notable free agents that played rotation minutes last year for the Lakers:
Carmelo Anthony (69 games played, 26 minutes per)
Avery Bradley (62 games played, 23 minutes per)
Dwight Howard (60 games played, 16 minutes per)
Wayne Ellington (43 games played, 19 minutes per)
Kent Bazemore (39 games played, 14 minutes per)
Trevor Ariza (24 games played, 19 minutes per)
DJ Augustin (20 games played, 18 minutes per)
Out of these players, Carmelo Anthony has been mentioned in a series of moves around the league. Other players like Avery Bradley, Dwight Howard, Wayne Ellington, and Kent Bazemore could be good pieces for contenders, but so far, they haven’t received a call from these teams.
If anything, this shows that the Lakers’ 2021/22 season was so bad that it might have hurt the status of certain players. Any of these could be a good addition to other franchises, or maybe the Lakers can pick up a couple of them to run it back next campaign.
