The Lakers’ main tool for signing an outside free agent: the $6,479,000 taxpayer mid-level exception.
It’ll go to former Spurs shooting guard Lonnie Walker.
Shams Charania of The Athletic:
Lonnie Walker IV is signing a one-year, $6.5M deal with the Lakers, sources said. https://t.co/7xBnStLWfo
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2022
Walker is represented by Klutch Sports – the agency that represents LeBron James and Anthony Davis and therefore has a hold in the Lakers’ operations.
San Antonio – the team that knows Walker best – rescinded his $6,311,564 qualifying offer. Maybe that ought to say something.
Granted, the Spurs are fully embracing rebuilding and drafted shooting guards Devin Vassell, Josh Primo, Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley the last few years. If not wanting to match an offer to keep him, anyway, San Antonio might have just done Walker a favor by letting him become an unrestricted free agent.
But teams typically extend that type of favor only to players deemed marginal.
Walker has the size and athleticism to succeed in the NBA. He has shown flashes of doing it already. But the 23-year-old is far less polished than ideal for a team that should be urgently trying to win another championship before 37-year-old LeBron exits his prime.
The Lakers also added depth with a few minimum signings: Juan Toscano-Anderson (another Klutch client), Damian Jones and Troy Brown.
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Free agent C Damian Jones has agreed to a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 30, 2022
Charania:
Free agent Troy Brown Jr. has agreed to a minimum deal with the Los Angeles Lakers, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2022
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
Free agent forward Juan Tuscano-Anderson — member of Golden State Warriors championship team — has reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers, his agent Erika Ruiz of @KlutchSports tells @YahooSports. https://t.co/0eNzwHyMng
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 30, 2022
Toscano-Anderson brings athleticism to the wing, though it’s telling the Warriors didn’t include him in their playoff rotation en route to winning the championship. It’s tough to find minimum-salary players capable of playing postseason minutes for a contender, but that’s the Lakers’ challenge after pouring so many of their resources into acquiring Russell Westbrook last year.
Jones played pretty well in a brief 2021 stint with the Lakers. He could see a role at center, allowing Davis to spend more time at power forward.
The No. 15 pick in the 2018 NBA draft, Brown has generously looked like fringe rotation player with the Wizards and Bulls.
