The Lakers have placed four players on waivers, announcing today in a press release that they’ve cut Joel Ayayi, Chaundee Brown, Cameron Oliver, and Trevelin Queen.
Brown, Oliver, and Queen were camp invitees who weren’t expected to make the regular season roster, so it comes as no surprise that they were waived. They’ll likely end up joining the South Bay Lakers, L.A.’s G League affiliate, for the 2021/22 season, tweets Kyle Goon of The Southern California News Group.
However, Ayayi’s release is more unexpected. The former Gonzaga wing was considered one of this year’s top undrafted free agents and committed to the Lakers shortly after the draft ended in July, but didn’t have a great preseason, making just 1-of-10 shots in five games. He had been on a two-way contract.
The moves leave the Lakers with just 15 players under contract, including 14 on standard deals and one (Sekou Doumbouya) on a two-way pact. The club may not carry a 15th man to start the season, given the tax ramifications, but it’s possible that open two-way slot will be filled sooner rather than later.
Ayayi has the pedigree to get multiple shots at the NBA. And he can certainly go overseas and get paid if he wants to.
At the very least he’s a good bet to be a 10 day guy.
Can’t believe they pulled Andrew Bynum’s jersey number out of retirement for this guy
Lol. Bynum wasn’t a total failure. In fact he was trending up before his knee blew. He averaged 18 PPG the year before that. Afterwards he was toast though.
I remember being it reported that Queen got a partial guarantee when he signed with LA. Wonder if that was true and how much he got?
Andrew Bynum got his jersey retired?— by the Lakers? Haha.
They did give Mary queen of scots a mention: Travelin Queen.
Brow and Queen are the work keeping. Ayayi was a joke, and Oliver was just lazy to me. Body language was awful. Reminds me of Anthony Bennett.