Without many future draft picks in their war chest, the Los Angeles Lakers have to find and develop young talent whenever they can get it.
The Lakers have done well in the latter parts of the NBA Draft and undrafted free agency, but they’ve also been good about utilizing their G League affiliate South Bay to take swings on players.
Several good NBA players have come through South Bay, including guard Kobe Bufkin. A former first-round pick, Bufkin earned his keep in the league after he signed a two-year NBA contract with the Lakers.
Head coach JJ Redick explained why they signed Bufkin instead of a player off the buyout market and how they feel about him on the roster.
“There’s a lot of factors that go into that, you know, the buyout market, I’ll just be frank because I did this when I was working in media, very rarely produces a player that impacts a team’s playoff chances. It just — it very rarely does,” Redick said. “The second part of that is you gotta make sure if you get a buyout player, you gotta make sure that guy is healthy, ready to play. Kobe has certainly earned a spot in the NBA with the way he’s played this year for us in South Bay. There’s also factors of are we going to be able to keep him in our program? So there’s a lot that went into it. We feel really happy that we got him on a roster spot.”
Redick also explained what Bufkin brings to the table and how he can help the purple and gold.
“I think the thing that Zach (Guthrie) has really challenged him on this year and he’s gotten better on is just his defensive activity and engagement. I think he’s got the positional size to be a plus defender and obviously his ability to shoot the ball consistently, particularly on our team, would provide great value.”
Bufkin lit up the G League with South Bay, but now has an opportunity to carve out a role back in the NBA with the Lakers. It might be hard for him to earn minutes the rest of the season given the playoff race, but long-term he’s an intriguing prospect worth monitoring.
Lakers aggressively shopped Dalton Knecht at trade deadline
While Kobe Bufkin is officially on the roster now, the Lakers spent most of the trade deadline reportedly aggressively shopping Dalton Knecht. Knecht has fallen out of the rotation and likely needs change of scenery to get his NBA career back on track, but that will have to wait until the summer.
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