With teams allowed to carry as many as 20 players per roster during training camp, the Lakers held a free agent minicamp on Wednesday to take a look at some of those looking to break into the NBA or return to it.
“Most of these players are known players,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “To find a player here that no one in the world knows about is not likely. There are players that maybe left school too early, went to Europe (and) need time to develop. Then some of them are veterans just looking for an opportunity to hook up (with a team).”
“I don’t think we’re looking at players here that would be in the rotation, although you never know,” Kupchak said. “They come to camp and earn whatever they can get. But what I think we’re looking at here are known players. They’re free agents and we do have roster spots open in terms of our team. But also we have roster spots open in terms of training camp.”
Minicamp Participants:
- Jeff Ayres (Los Angeles Clippers/Arizona State)
- P.J. Hairston (Memphis Grizzlies/ North Carolina)
- Tyler Haws (Obradoiro CAB/BYU)
- Xavier Henry (Santa Cruz Warriors/Kansas)
- Pierre Jackson (Idaho Stampede/Baylor)
- Julian Jacobs (USC)
- Orlando Johnson (Guangxi Weizhuang/UC Santa Barbara)
- Nikola Jovanovic (USC)
- Mamadou Ndiaye (UC Irvine)
- Johnny O’Bryant III (Milwaukee Bucks/LSU)
- Wesley Saunders (Austin Spurs/Harvard)
- Travis Wear (RETAbet.es GBC/UCLA)
- Dion Wright (St. Bonaventure)
Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 5301 Location: Redondo Beach
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:14 pm Post subject:
I'd guess Xavier Henry has the best chance of getting invited to training camp - has experience in the Warriors system (played on their D-League team), was once a promising player for the Lakers pre-injury.
Plus, if Nick Young is traded/waived, he can take his spot as backup guard/wing
Joined: 02 Jun 2009 Posts: 2415 Location: Far from home
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 1:35 pm Post subject:
In the right system, I guess Travis Wear (6-10, 230 from UCLA 2014) could be useful as a smart passing pick-n-pop midrange shooter. Last time I saw him, he was kinda between positions as a defender: gets pushed around near the hoop, and he moves a bit too limited laterally and from a standing-start to get out on open three point shooters well. I doubt he or anyone else listed has high potential for the Lakers on an absolute basis. _________________ “These GOAT discussions are fun distractions while sitting around waiting for the pizza to be served.”
man.. what happened to Xavier.. he was looking like a solid pickup before that injury.. it must have been really bad.
Knee injury cause D'antoni played him at point guard instead of Kendall Marshall.. who he was then forced to play and Marshall had a 20/15 game in assists and points and looked like a gem.
So yeah...
And then he tried to play through his injuries, including a torn ligament in his wrist, which caused him to not recover over the summer as he could have, and tried to do the same the year after, went to the D-League where he always seemed to wince as he made his moves but he kept playing through it. It came to a head and he tore his Achillies. But the Lakers eventhough they removed him from their roster, kept him with the facilities and rehabbed him back to health as if he was a member of the team. Class.
As opposed to the Bucks who just threw out Kendall Marshall after he got hurt and didn't rehab him one bit.
One of my favorite games from Xavier was that Knicks game where he gave it his all despite the injured knee and torn ligament
If you watch it, that's probably going to be a similar style to what we'll be doing this year offensively (look at that ball movement). But hopefully we'll have a MUCH better defensive scheme and identity.
X was my favorite player that year, he had so much upside - considering that was only the 2nd year he got minutes. can a good soul send him this hair shooting vid. I been blocked for a year idk why
Character, poor decision making, consistent effort and streaky shooter has been his issue.
If taking his craft serious maybe a nice 15th man at SG/SF defensively.
Still very young at 23. I think they will take a good look at Hairston and Henry to fill that last guard spot. Hairston lit the Lakers up for 17 and 21 respectively last season, so they must have seen enough to invite him. Both are also guards who can slide over to the small forward spot, and we all know Luke is looking for versatility. Still trying to figure out how Lou isn't the odd man out in these scenarios. His size just handicaps the team IMO.
I liked Henry during his short stint here, but he has never been able to stay healthy, and it's hard to imagine he'd ever regain the explosiveness he had before.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum