Which 2021-2022 Lakers players still don’t have a team for 2022-2023?
After an abysmal season last year, the Los Angeles Lakers free agency policy has been a slash-and-burn rebuild, leaving veteran players looking for a job
When the merciful end of the 2021/22 season finally brought sweet relief to the misery that the Los Angeles Lakers had been suffering, a free agency direction was formulated. The team would clear-cut their entire roster, using slash-and-burn techniques to rebuild the entire roster from the ground up.
Lakers coach Darvin Ham was on the lookout for fresh and emerging talent, expressing his pleasure with the signing results, saying, “I think we’ve gotten younger, I think we’ve gotten faster, I think we’ve gotten hungrier.”
Lakers’ players from last year that are still free agents:
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) August 2, 2022
Carmelo Anthony
Dwight Howard
Avery Bradley
Kent Bazemore
D.J. Augustin
Wayne Ellington
Rajon Rondo
Trevor Ariza
Darren Collison
Isaiah Thomas
(via @mcten, https://t.co/5zp8UOCeH7) pic.twitter.com/zUbUDl2TmE
The veteran players cut are all over thirty, ranging from the youngest of the bunch in 31-year-old Avery Bradley all the way up to the 38-year-old Carmelo Anthony.
So far only DeAndre Jordan has signed a veteran-minimum contract with the Denver Nuggets, leaving ten others in the unemployment line.
- Carmelo Anthony 38
- Dwight Howard 36
- Avery Bradley 31
- Kent Bazemore 33
- D.J. Augustin 34
- Wayne Ellington 34
- Rajon Rondo 36
- Trevor Ariza 37
- Darren Collison 34
- Isaiah Thomas 33
The Golden State Warriors are on the shortlist of teams interested in Carmelo Anthony.
— Basketball Forever (@Bballforeverfb) July 28, 2022
(via Sean Deveney) pic.twitter.com/foXJP3kzdk
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With the Kevin Durant trade request clogging up the works in the trade machine, there are still a ton of question marks over who is looking for what, and it could be several weeks more before the gears get greased again.
Some of these names should generate a fair amount of interest around the league but it could be difficult to see multi-year deals in front of Arzia, Rondo, Howard, and Anthony. As for the last two, there is already significant interest in both Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard, so single-season deals could be in the offing. But for the others, the chances of the season starting with their names on anyone’s roster are vanishingly slim.