Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Walton Believes In Deep Bench

October 31st, 2016 at 8:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers coach Luke Walton believes in going deep into his bench in order to keep his roster engaged, Mark Medina of The Orange County Register writes. Discussing his rotation plans, Walton told the scribe, “I know how much more a part of the team you feel even if it’s just only four or five minutes on a certain night. With the environment we’re trying to build and foundation we’re trying to set, we want everyone believing in the idea that it is our team, and different nights it’s going to be different people.”

Lakers Hope To Improve Standing With Free Agents

October 29th, 2016 at 9:47pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers hope to be more appealing to free agents by the time California natives Russell Westbrook and Paul George become available in two years, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Over the summer, L.A. was turned down for meetings by Kevin Durant, Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside.

Clarkson Embraces Role As Sixth Man

October 27th, 2016 at 10:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Combo guard Jordan Clarkson is not fazed by his new role as the Lakers’ sixth man, Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times relays. The former starter had 23 second-half points and three steals in their opening-night win over the Rockets. “He’s been absolutely great,” Walton told Ganguli. “I’ve talked to him about starting or coming off the bench; he’s been good with both. It’s nice to have guys like that on your team.”

Anthony Brown Signs D-League Deal

October 27th, 2016 at 7:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Point guard Josh Magette has signed an NBADL contract, the D-League Digest tweets. Magette was a late training-camp cut by the Hawks. The Lakers’ D-League affiliate, the D-Fenders, owns his rights. Magette, 26, made three preseason appearances for Atlanta, spanning 17 minutes. He averaged 11.5 points and 9.1 assists in 45 games last season for the D-Fenders, with whom he has played the past two seasons.

D'Antoni Feared Career Was Over When He Left L.A.

October 26th, 2016 at 11:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

New Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni thought his career might be over when he left the Lakers in 2014, writes Bill Oram of The Orange Country Register. Not only did that team underachieve, but D’Antoni spent much of the season fighting with Kobe Bryant. D’Antoni revived his career as an assistant with the Sixers last season before being hired by Houston over the summer. “It’s a privilege to be able to coach in this league,” D’Antoni said. “It’s very rare you can dictate where you want to go, and usually where you’re going they have problems or you wouldn’t be going there. You just try to find the right situation, and if it’s not the right situation, try to make it work. If it doesn’t work out, try to live to fight a battle someplace else. It was a privilege to coach the Lakers. It was a privilege to coach Kobe and those guys. I’m better for it.”

Lakers Exercise Options For Russell, Randle, Nance

October 26th, 2016 at 2:45pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers are the latest team to exercise 2017/18 options for players on rookie scale contracts, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who tweets that D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Larry Nance Jr. have had their options picked up by Los Angeles. The Lakers have formally confirmed the moves in a press release.

By exercising the three options, the Lakers will guarantee Russell a $5.562MM salary in 2017/18, with Randle set to earn $4.149MM, and Nance to get $1.26MM. It’s a fourth-year option for Randle, who will subsequently be on track to reach restricted free agency in 2018. Russell and Nance, on the other hand, are one season behind Randle, so they had their third-year options picked up today.

Russell and Randle each averaged 28.2 minutes per game for the 2015/16 Lakers, and are poised to assume even larger roles for this year’s club. Russell was the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, while Randle was selected seventh overall in 2014, and both players are viewed as core pieces for this young L.A. team, along with 2016 No. 2 overall pick Brandon Ingram. Expectations aren’t quite so high for Nance, but the Wyoming product did have a solid rookie season, averaging 5.5 PPG and 5.0 RPG.

Lakers Cut Anthony Brown; Roster Down To 15

October 24th, 2016 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have made a somewhat surprising move to reduce their roster to 15 players, announcing in a press release that they’ve waived forward Anthony Brown. The cut opens up room on the roster for Los Angeles to keep both Thomas Robinson and Metta World Peace, who were previously believed to be battling for the final spot.

Brown, 24, was selected 34th overall in the 2015 draft by the Lakers, and appeared in 29 games for the team during his rookie season, starting 11 of them. In 20.7 MPG, he averaged 4.0 PPG and 2.4 RPG, shooting just 31.0% from the field. The Stanford product had a guaranteed $874,636 salary for 2016/17, but the Lakers decided to move on from him anyway, eating that guaranteed money.

Neither Robinson nor World Peace had a guaranteed salary, but it appears both veterans have earned spots on the Lakers’ roster, now that the team has parted with Brown and Yi Jianlian. Robinson, a former fifth overall pick, had a solid camp with the team and will compete for frontcourt minutes in the hopes of sticking in L.A. long enough for his salary to become fully guaranteed.

As for World Peace, the Lakers value his veteran leadership and reportedly had interest in keeping him around as an assistant coach if he didn’t make the team. Perhaps sensing that the veteran forward would be reluctant to call it a career if the Lakers asked him to join their coaching staff, it seems the club found room on its 15-man roster for him instead.

Lakers Waive Yi Jianlian At His Request

October 24th, 2016 at 12:28pm CST by Luke Adams

12:28pm: The Lakers have officially waived Yi, the team announced in a press release.

8:18am: The Lakers are currently carrying 17 players, meaning they need to make two more cuts before Monday’s regular-season roster deadline, and Yi Jianlian made one of those decisions easy. According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the Chinese forward has asked the Lakers to waive him, and the team will formally grant that request, waiving him in advance of today’s deadline.

As Stein details, Yi and his representatives would like the chance to pursue other opportunities after the role he envisioned in Los Angeles didn’t pan out. That could mean seeking an NBA job, but there’s a good chance the former sixth overall pick heads back overseas — he’d have better odds of earning a significant role back in China than he would with another NBA club. At this point it’s not clear which way he’s leaning, per Stein.

The contract Yi signed with the Lakers this offseason could have been worth as much as $8MM if he’d stuck with the team all season and appeared in at least 59 games. However, at this point it was only guaranteed for $250K. The rolling guarantees and incentives made it a very trade-friendly deal, which was why L.A. was believed to be leaning toward keeping Yi.

Instead, the Lakers figure to turn to Metta World Peace or Thomas Robinson for their 15th and final roster spot, with the other player joining Yi on the waiver wire. The team reportedly wouldn’t mind keeping World Peace as an assistant rather than as a player, but if he’s not willing to retire quite yet, perhaps L.A. will be using to use that final roster opening on him.

Still, as Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times tweets, Robinson has “really impressed” the Lakers over the last few weeks, meaning he has a decent shot to win the roster battle. Robinson is nearly 12 years younger than World Peace, and – like Yi – was a high draft pick, having been selected fifth overall in 2012.

And-Ones: Roster Moves, Bulls, Rudez, Onuaku

October 23rd, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Monday afternoon is the deadline to reach the roster limit of 15, and nine teams still have cuts to make, tweets salary cap expert Albert Nahmad. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Rockets, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, Sixers, Suns and Kings all remain over the limit leading into what should be an eventful day, says Nahmad. By our count, the Grizzlies still have a move to make as well. The Pacers were the latest team to trim their roster, waiving Jeremy Evans and Julyan Stone tonight.

There’s more news from around the NBA:

J.J. Avila, who was waived Friday by the Bulls, has agreed to play for Chicago’s D-League affiliate, tweets Dennis Silva II of Monitor News. The 6’8″ power forward from Colorado State signed a training camp contract with Chicago in September. Guard Thomas Walkup of Stephen F. Austin, another Friday cut, will also be joining the Windy City Bulls (Twitter link).
Damjan Rudez and Arinze Onuaku both traveled a lot of miles to realize their dream of returning to the NBA, writes John Denton of NBA.com. After playing overseas and in the D-League, both veterans were told Saturday that they had earned a place on the Magic’s final roster. “It was a big blessing,” Onuaka said. “When you are out here fighting for a spot every day it’s stressful and to get that news, it was great. You’ve always got to wait to hear if you’re in or you’re out, so it wasn’t easy sleeping at night.’’
Fred VanVleet won the Raptors‘ final roster spot, but coach Dwane Casey said all the training camp invitees were impressive, tweets Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. Casey said Drew Crawford and Brady Heslip have the talent to be NBA players, adding that he was disappointed he didn’t have room to keep all of them.

2016/17 NBA Over/Unders: Pacific Division

October 23rd, 2016 at 11:00am CST by Luke Adams

The 2016/17 NBA regular season gets underway just a couple days from now, which means it’s time to start getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign. With the help of the lines from offshore betting site Bovada.lv, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division, and having you weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic. Having looked at the Atlantic, Northwest, Central, Southwest, and Southeast divisions so far, we’re moving on to the Pacific today…