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The Los Angeles Lakers head into the off-season with minimal cap space to begin rebuilding their failing roster.
However, there are still avenues the team can explore to inject some new blood into their rotation as they begin to look at righting the wrongs of this past season. A key area of need for the purple and gold is an additional wing, ideally, a floor spacer who can come off the bench and provide an offensive punch whilst still being viable on the defensive side of the floor.
Enter Otto Porter Jr., the former top-three pick who is amidst an impressive season with the Golden State Warriors. The veteran wing is currently earning just $2.3 million and will become an unrestricted free agent once the season reaches its conclusion.
While the Lakers might not have much room to maneuver in the free-agent market, they can certainly afford to extend a minimum contract offer to Porter Jr. or could look to use some, or all, of their mid-level exception to entice scoring wing to Tinseltown.
What Does Porter Jr. Bring to The Table?
Any new addition to the Lakers needs to bring some three-point shooting, additional ball-handling, and be able to hold their own on the defensive end. Porter Jr. checks all of those boxes and comes as a ready-made addition for a Lakers bench that struggled for consistency throughout the season.
In 65 regular-season games for the Warriors, the Missouri native averaged 8.2 points, 1.5 assists, and 5.7 rebounds per game on 37% shooting from the perimeter and 46.4% shooting from the field. Furthermore, Porter Jr. came off the bench for 48 games this season and has proven to be accepting of a bench role – which will be an important factor should he choose to join the Lakers.
At six-foot-eight, Porter Jr. would also add some versatility to the Lakers rotation. He is a viable option at either the small forward, power forward, or center position. In fact, throughout his time in Golden State this season, the versatile wing has spent 36% of his minutes as a small-ball five – the first time in his career his been given the opportunity to play the position for extended minutes.
By adding Otto Porter Jr. to the bench, the Lakers are giving themselves plenty of lineup flexibility and would also provide them with an opportunity to explore some small-ball lineups that don’t feature LeBron James as a point-center, regardless of how impressive he looked when playing that role.
Would The Lakers Offer a Contract
The Lakers front office has their hands full this summer, and that all begins with hiring a new head coach. Once they have instilled a new commander in chief, they can begin to address the future of Russell Westbrook, and then, they can finally begin to take stock of the remaining roster.
However, free agency often punishes teams that dilly dally in their decision-making, as targets quickly come off the board – especially versatile floor spacers who don’t project to hit the cap sheet too harshly.
As such, we can expect the Lakers to begin testing the waters with any potential signings once the season ends, and if they’re looking to improve their wing depth with a veteran who can operate in multiple positions on both ends of the floor, Porter Jr. will be a name near the top of their list.
Of course, the Lakers will face stiff competition from the Warriors, who will likely try to retain their wing following an impressive season, and that’s why it might take the MLE to entice the Georgetown product to Los Angeles.
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