Kent

Bazemore

The Warriors are well under the roster limit for training camp (20), as they have a total of 14 players guaranteed to be present in early October. Given the team’s salary cap situation, they have to look for relative bargains to fill out the roster. As a result, multiple free agents will work out for the team over the next two weeks. According to the report, Juan Toscano-Anderson is one of those players. Also reportedly headed to the Bay Area to work out for the Warriors are Dion Waiters, Tony Snell, Kent Bazemore, Harry Giles, and Trey Burke. Toscano-Anderson and Bazemore have been with the Warriors before, but there’s no telling if the familiarity will enhance their chances of sticking.

Cook was only on an Exhibit 10 deal, while Bazemore’s $1.8 million contract was fully non-guaranteed. Neither player was going to see minutes for Sacramento this season, so they went ahead and cleared the roster spaces. Bazemore could sign with a playoff team to provide some defense, but it’s unlikely that he sees any real playing time.

After spending last season with the Lakers, Bazemore will remain in the Pacific Division for the 2022-23 campaign. He appeared in 39 games for the Lakers last season, making 14 starts. And the veteran wing didn’t offer much in the way of production, averaging 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.7 3-pointers in 14.0 minutes per game. Unless the Kings were hit extremely hard by injuries, Bazemore doesn’t stand to get the playing time needed to make an impact in fantasy.

Anthony will miss his second straight game and with him sidelined, Talen Horton-Tucker and Kent Bazemore are in line to play more minutes.

The Lakers are getting a bit healthier on the perimeter, as Bazemore and Austin Reaves are no longer listed on the injury report. In the case of Bazemore, he’s fallen out of the rotation after beginning the season as a starter. His return will not have an impact as far as fantasy is concerned.

Hopefully the Lakers can get these two back for Friday’s game in Portland, because they need all the help they can get at the moment. If these two can return, it would likely knock Stanley Johnson and Darren Collison, who were both added on 10-day exemptions, out of the rotation completely, though neither Reaves or Bazemore are fantasy prospects themselves.

Baze is the sixth Laker to enter into league protocols. He played well in a spot start on Friday, but won’t have a chance to build on that tonight.

The eleven points tied a season-high for Bazemore, a mark that he hasn’t hit since October when he was a regular starter. Since then, Bazemore has logged some DNP’s and been a non-factor in the rotation on most nights. But with the recent chaos around the NBA and the bodies that the Lakers are down at the moment, Bazemore got his time to shine and made the most of it. We don’t expect it to be a routine thing going forward though.

Ellington has hit double figures in two of the last three games, with Sunday’s effort being his best of the season to date. Ellington is worth tracking for points and 3-pointers reasons, but that’s about it. Outside of deep-league managers in need of production in those statistical categories, there isn’t much reason to roster Ellington. Something else to keep an eye on moving forward are Kent Bazemore’s minutes, as he was a DNP-CD Sunday afternoon. With Talen Horton-Tucker back in the fold (and starting), Bazemore and Ellington are likely in direct competition for a spot in the rotation.

This is Horton-Tucker’s season debut after recovering from thumb surgery, so we don’t expect his playing time to be very high. Kent Bazemore and DeAndre Jordan shift to the second unit as a result, with the Lakers getting more offensive firepower into their starting five. THT struggled with efficiency last season and he’s only worth streaming in deeper leagues for now, though we’ll be keeping a very close eye on him.