The Lakers are signing Lonnie Walker to a one-year, $6.5MM deal, Damian Jones to a two-year, minimum-salary deal with a player option, and Troy Brown Jr. to a minimum deal, according reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (All Twitter links here). Brown’s contract is for one year, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.
Walker, 23, was the 18th pick of the 2018 draft and spent his first four seasons with the Spurs. He’s a very athletic guard and has shown glimpses of potential, but struggled with efficiency last season (.407/.314/.784 shooting line).
In 70 games (23 MPG) with San Antonio last season, Walker averaged 12.1 PPG, 2.6 RPG and 2.2 APG. The Spurs decided to withdraw his qualifying offer just before free agency opened, making him unrestricted and free to sign with any team. The move wasn’t very surprising considering the Spurs were better with him off the court (+2.1 net rating) than on it (-3.0), so he’ll be looking to build up his value in Los Angeles after an up-and-down tenure in San Antonio.
Jones, who turns 27 today, had a solid season with the Kings in 2021/22 after struggling to find a standard roster spot in ’20/21. In 56 games this season (18.2 MPG), Jones averaged 8.1 PPG and 4.4 RPG while shooting 65.8% from the field and 71.8% from the line.
After being drafted 30th overall in 2016 by the Warriors, Jones spent his first three seasons with Golden State but struggled to find a consistent role. He’s long and athletic, but was raw coming out of college. He made stops in Atlanta, Phoenix and L.A. from 2019-21 before landing with Sacramento, where he developed into a solid backup center.
Brown, 22, was the 15th pick of the 2018 draft and spent his first two-plus seasons with Washington before being traded to Chicago last year. The Bulls declined his qualifying offer after he struggled to make an impact this season, averaging 4.3 PPG and 3.1 RPG on .419/.353/.769 shooting in 66 games (16 MPG).
By using the taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Walker, the Lakers will be limited to a minimum contract for Max Christie, whom the team selected with the 35th pick of the draft last week. Christie’s deal will be limited to two years, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks relays (via Twitter).
Signed Damian jones a little too late… we should have kept him when we first signed him to a 10-day.
Walker is a good value sign, but he’s highly unlikely to repeat what Malik Monk did last season. Jones and Brown? On a playoff team, they are out of the rotation. My, how the mighty have fallen.
Father Time is catching up with Lebron. Combine that with cap issues and ad injury issues and they are in trouble. Just counting down days until he switches teams to play with bronny
Well they do get younger but they are not good shooters . Wonder if melo and Dwight will resign
I haven’t seen much of Walker but that seems like an overpay.
He is a young athletic slasher not a great shooter . More suited as an as a second guard forward of the bench
L for the Lakers
Just bench players. I can’t see this as their big move for the year but replacing other bench players.
Below average bench players ….
Compare them to the bucks getting Joe Mathews and Carter I’d say all three of the bucks players are better
Same with the Sixers
I’d rather Tucker House and Queen
Laker lack shooting so these things don’t move the needle at all just improves them slightly on defense. Don’t understand why they don’t sign real shooting stars.
Tucker got 11m per
JTA to Lakers
Damian Jones shot 94% during his cup of coffee with the Lakers and over 90% at the line. My only question is how they let him go in the first place?
“Championship” GMBron …….
Walker’s free agent profile looks a lot like Monk’s did last off season. We’ll see. But this is a very talented player.
Lakers desperate here. Bron is fading fast and Street Clothes can’t even get on the court. Russ should just be benched for the year.
So Walker is their big swing. Only minimum contracts from here. Malik Monk is a goner.
Should have kept Jones over signing Drummond a couple of years ago, Troy Brown should give them playmaking/defense months wing to replace Bazemore in that role, and Lonnie Walker as a scorer/potentially to space the floor at combo guard is nice, although I see him more as depth, with Kendrick Nunn being there, this gives them some redundancy there, but with his injury last year, probably a good call to ha e that
JTA gives them something they’ve badly needed, although he is more useful as a 4, in my opinion in, but still helps them in their area of need on the wing, plus they drafted Christie who can give them something there, though he is raw, and hopefully they used Reaves more. They need at least 1 more 3 and D wing option, and I think they should be significantly better if they can stay healthy
Man every time lately with these autocorrect and types that are just awful lol. Here theres just 1, and that alone makes it hard to understand…I cant type on touchscreen apparently, and my eyes arent good enough to notice
*playmaking/defense on the wing…JTA can also help in that area when not at the 4, of they resign Melo as a scorer/shooter at that spot