Lakers center Damian Jones, whose second 10-day contract with Los Angeles expired overnight, will not be retained on a rest-of-season deal, per Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times.
Jones has suited up in eight contests for the Lakers so far (including six starts, with Marc Gasol sidelined due to COVID-19 protocols). Woike notes that roster limitations impeded on Jones getting further time with the club.
With the departure of Jones, the Lakers have two open roster spots. That flexibility could come in handy as they look for help in the trade and buyout markets as All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis remain out. The team may prefer to add a more seasoned big man like Andre Drummond, should the Cavaliers center become available on the buyout market.
As Kevin Pelton of ESPN details, the Lakers are only about $1.7MM below their hard cap, which will limit the amount of salary they can take on in any deal. Woike also mentioned the hard cap was a consideration in the Lakers’ decision to move on from Jones.
Jones, 25, spent his first three NBA seasons as an occasional player for some loaded Warriors teams. He spent all of the 2019/20 season with the Hawks. This year, he logged 14 games in Phoenix before latching on with Los Angeles. He averaged 5.4 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 0.9 BPG across 14.0 MPG in his eight contests with LA.
Absolutely dumb move.. has better stats then gasol in less minutes.. they are expecting buyout players.. however lebrons injury complicates matters.. lakers are 6 up in loss column on # 10 seed.. lebron injury may be 4-6 weeks.. if they go on extended losing streak, they could possibly miss playoffs.. what complicates that is players may not come to a team that could miss playoffs
Agreed. Jones was excellent on court and made huge defensive plays. If it comes down to roster spot I’d cut gasol to keep Jones. Must mean pelinka is planning big moves
People have the most irrational takes with the Lakers . 6 up in the loss is a lot of ground to make up even without LbJ and AD. And that’s not even correct since #10 makes the playoffs. They are 10 up in the loss colum on OKC who is the first team out. They will be fine.
Lakers have 14 losses. Grizz have 20 losses. Grizz are 10 seed. 10 seed isn’t a playoff team it’s a playin where they need to win 2 and upper seed wins one to advance
SMH Talk about a bunch of bandwagon fans. The lakers have enough vets on the team to stay afloat without LeBron or AD. They should still easily beat non-playoff teams. They will need to play good defense to get by lower seeded playoff teams. Most likely struggle against top teams. All said should still have a win % above .430 which is enough to keep them about 6th in the playoff hunt.
Lakers have the 6th toughest schedule
Next 30 games.im not too confident in Kcp showing up.. or kuzma and certainly not gasol.. yesterday they were scoreless for first 5 minutes of 3rd quarter.. they dumped into Harrell to create all the offense. Caruso and Kcp offense is non existent and they play heavy minutes.. kuzma it’s time for him to put up or shut up and schroder needs to put his
Money where his mouth is.. he wants 20+ million he better perform.. I’m not seeing it.. 5 assists and 3 turnover average shooting 31% from 3.. plus we gonna rely on gasol?
Yes the Lakers are not capable of winning 2 in a row against 6-8 seeds. Just give up the season now.
They won’t be fine. They were playing below .500 already since AD got hurt and will have a hard time beating anyone without both him and LeBron. #10 makes the play-in tournament, not the playoffs.
Yes generally that’s what happens when a superstar gets hurt.
I’m surprised as a laker fan.
Pelinka runs the Lakers like he’s desperate.
They can’t afford to keep Damien Jones on a full year?
Someone show them how to budget and save a couple draft picks.
So we give back AD and the ring and we get that cash and picks back !
You really cant win these days no matter what you do
Sounds/looks like L.A. will be making a roster move next week?
I guess they are gonna bank on Andre Drummond being bought out or the availability of Hassan Whiteside.
Cut Dudley and hire him as a coach. Same result, extra roster spot.
They’d still have to pay Dudley, which wouldn’t address the issue with the cap. I mean it sounds like the cap (and to a lesser extent, maintaining roster flexibility) is the primary factor here. If Jones doesn’t sign elsewhere and say Drummond or another big don’t become available/sign with LA, they could always circle back to Jones at that point.
I get a good laugh whenever someone defends Dudley taking up a roster spot. Lol I think they have enough veterans, Lebron, Gasol, Davis, Matthews, Morris. Just cut Dudley already
They are hardcapped.. he’s guaranteed and cutting him doesn’t help in anyway with cap other then paying someone for one less roster spot
With only $1.5M in cap space under the hard cap they can’t cut anyone. They barely have enough space to sign Drummond or someone else on the buyout market, so the Lakers might as well sign more 10-day contracts while they attempt to stay above .500 over the next 30 games without their star players for a while.
@John “You laugh”…
So you are saying they should go over cap to have a different player? I dont get what is funny.
The Lakers are hard capped. There is no “over cap” for them at all this year. They have 1.7M to spend total on any player(s) for the rest of the season.
Hardcapped because they signed Mathews to bi annual.. great move by pelinka
I hope Pelinka has a scheme in mind…
If Lebron needs to miss more than a week, they need to sign a pg. I guess Isaiah Thomas can be had. I don’t see Lakers making a trade . They don’t have any good assets. Doubt anybody will take kuz with his new contract kicking in next year. The Lakers will make the playoffs unless Lebron and Davis are out a month.
I think they should have kept Damian Jones.
Go Lakers!
LAL at this point they couldn’t miss the playoffs even if they tanked hard, as simple as!
West ain’t that strong as used to be the last few years.
Good move gettin’ rid of Jones, Laker defense & specially the inside D is just fine, they are the best defensive team in the West, so unless they can get a star caliber center like Dre or Whiteside there is absolutely no point in wasting $ & a roster spot in a bum like Jones!
i agree with you, he’s not that good as most of here are saying…
the 32 rebounds (11 on the offensive end) by the hawks is not acceptable!
some here are so smart, they should replace pelinka as the GM, lol!
Obviously they’re hardcapped, but they should keep Damian Jones. He has been incredibly amazing for them. Dude has a +55 net rating per 100 possessions. Their bigs are fine when everyone is healthy, with Gasol leading the league in defensive box plus/minus, Anthony Davis, Harrell, or even LeBron in small lineups, but if they’re looking for a backup rim protector, Damian Jones fits very strongly, and has shown he is a good enough replacement in a injury situation, which they’re in right now.
If anything, they could use another wing defender behind KCP and Wesley Matthews. So if they wakt to keep a spot open, with room under the hard cap, I’m sure they’d be exploring moving Dudley and Mckinnie’s money, with a pick attached. If they think they need to keep that spot open, that would be the best way to do it, but even if they cant add anyone else, I think they should keep Jones