Getty Los Angeles Lakers forward Alex Fudge.
The youth movement is alive and well for the Los Angeles Lakers. The only players on the roster over 30 are Anthony Davis and LeBron James, and the team still isn’t done adding young players.
The Lakers announced on July 26that they are signing rookie forward Alex Fudge to a two-way contract.
OFFICIAL: Welcome to the squad, @iam_AlexFudge!
Fudge will likely spend most of the season on the South Bay Lakers of the G League but he’ll have a chance to prove he can play some minutes during the NBA regular season. He spent the Summer League with the Lakers where he averaged 3.0 points a game and 1.5 rebounds in seven games.
Fudge played college ball at Florida and LSU where he averaged 5.8 points and 4.5 rebounds in 19.3 minutes in 32 games. The Lakers are betting on potential with the young forward. He’s got good size at 6-foot-9 and is only 20. Though he wasn’t very productive from a statistical perspective in Summer League or in college there’s still time for him to grow and improve his game. The Lakers have had success with developmental rookies in the past.
Los Angeles Lakers Waive Cole Swider
With the Alex Fudge signing, the Lakers decided to move on from one of Summer League’s top performers. The team announced that Cole Swider is being waived in a move related to the Fudge signing.
In a related move, the Lakers requested waivers on two-way forward Cole Swider.
Swider spent last year with the Lakers and appeared in seven games for the team. He did most of his damage in the G League where he averaged 17.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists a game for the South Bay Lakers. During this year’s Summer League, he averaged 15.29 points a game on 45.3% 3-point shooting. Swider has major upside as a 3-point shooter in the NBA but his lack of athleticism makes him a liability on defense.
Every team needs good perimeter shooting but the Lakers favor Fudge’s athletic upside. Swider will be on the team’s radar throughout the season and should have a chance to return to the South Bay Lakers.
Los Angeles Lakers Ranked 6th in Power Rankings
The Lakers are coming off a surprise run to the Western Conference Finals last season and have put together a strong offseason. If they can stay healthy, they should be cotnenders to win a championship. However, not everybody is buying that they’re among the favorites.
In his July 20 power rankings, Zach Harper of The Athletic ranked the Lakers at No. 6 in the “Brink of Contention” tier.
“After the trade deadline, the Lakers were a completely different team,” Harper wrote. “We saw that in their defense. We saw that in them surviving a big stretch of games without LeBron James. We saw that in their march to eventually being swept in the conference finals. The Lakers vastly improved on the fly.
“How does that carry over to this season? They made a lot of smart, small moves this summer. Everything is still held together by Anthony Davis being on the court and whether LeBron can continue to be a dominant force. If either of those things slip, we’ll see regression. If they don’t, maybe this team really is worth talking about on every sports show every day.”