NOVEMBER 11TH: Miller is set to work out for the Lakers later this week, Charania tweets. The team recently received its disabled player exception for Randle, though it’s unclear if Los Angeles is targeting Miller for more than the minimum.
NOVEMBER 1ST, 1:16pm: Two other teams interested in potentially signing Miller are the Rockets and the Pacers, Charania reports
OCTOBER 31ST, 9:25pm: The Lakers are the leading team among the several that are going after former Nuggets forward Quincy Miller, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The Nuggets waived Miller just before the deadline for teams to cut their rosters to 15 players this week after trying to find trade partners who’d take him on. It appears clubs were waiting to have a crack at the player drafted 38th overall in 2012 without having to give up anything in a swap, given the high volume of interest that Charania indicates.
Miller, who turns 22 on November 18th, finally recovered last year from a torn left ACL that he suffered as a high school senior, averaging 4.9 points in 15.2 minutes per game across 52 contests after he made only seven appearances as a rookie the season before. He was the fifth-rated high school prospect in the country in 2011, according to the Recruiting Services Consensus Index, and front offices are apparently interested to see if his renewed health will allow him to finally realize that potential.
Injuries have taken their toll on the Lakers, who are without Steve Nash and Julius Randle for the rest of the season. They have 15 players on the roster and are limited to paying no more than the minimum salary, but they’re planning to apply for a disabled player exception for Nash that would allow them to spend close to $4.851MM on a free agent. They could also apply for such an exception based on Randle’s injury that would be worth about $1.499MM.
That smaller amount would likely be enough for Miller, and it would still be somewhat surprising to see a team commit more than the minimum salary to him. The more pressing concern for the Lakers might be the roster spot that adding Miller would cost them. Point guard Ronnie Price and shooting guard Wayne Ellington are the team’s only players without fully guaranteed contracts, and their non-guaranteed pacts become partially guaranteed if they’re still on the roster at the end of November 15th. Additional serious injuries could put the Lakers in line to apply for a hardship provision that would allow them to add at 16th player, but that’s not in play for now.