Getty Derrick Favors of the Utah Jazz reacts in the second half against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Lakers are in desperate need of a big man in free agency. With only Moritz Wagner on the roster as the lone big man, a starting caliber upgrade is necessary in order to make a deep playoff push. While the Lakers are trying to land Anthony Davis via trade, Davis traditionally plays the power forward and has a bit of an aversion to moving up to play center.
Enter Derrick Favors. While the big man technically still has another year left on his contract with the Utah Jazz, they can afford to waive him before July 7th without any salary cap implications. Set to make $17 million next season and despite still being in the starting lineup, he has seen his usage and role diminish as Utah’s younger crop of contributors has started to emerge.
Lakers Free Agency: L.A. Interested in Jazz Big Man Derrick Favors
By waiving Favors, the Jazz can clear up considerable money to make solid additions to their core and help build a better-suited team to run alongside the duo of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. While still likely to command a solid payday, Favors could be an option for the Lakers should they make a move for Anthony Davis and are able to hold onto one of their young assets.
In this scenario (after trading for AD), they wouldn’t have the necessary cap space to go hunting for a max contract free agent and instead could turn their attention to quality contributors who fit well alongside their existing pieces. Favors looks to be an excellent fit and the Lakers seem to have some interest according to Tony Jones of The Athletic.
The Athletic – “Already, there have been rumblings of interest from the Los Angeles Lakers, where his style of play would be a nice fit with LeBron James. In fact, he projects as a fit in multiple places. He’s one of the better offensive pick-and-roll big men in the league, able to pop into space and splash jumpers or to take it to the basket and finish above the rim.”
Despite Favors also primarily playing power forward, he saw plenty of minutes at center for the Jazz and should have no problem moving to the position and locking it down full-time.
Derrick Favors 2018-19 Stats
Last season with the Jazz, Favors averaged a very respectable 11.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks in just over 23 minutes per game. Most impressive of all is the fact that despite playing limited minutes, Favors still pulled down 2.7 offensive rebounds per game. When moved into the context of his stats per 36 minutes (closer to a typical workload for a key starter), Favors checks in with 18.3 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per 36 minutes.
Favors could be expected to play a fairly similar role (just with more minutes) should he join the Lakers. The key difference is that he could be going from a defensive-minded Utah Jazz team with a stagnant offense to an up-tempo and dynamic offense led by one of the generation’s greatest playmakers in LeBron James. If the Jazz cut Favors and the Lakers land Davis, expect them to make a big run at the extremely talented, and criminally underrated, Favors.