The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the teams to watch heading into free agency as they project to be one of the only teams with significant cap space.
The Lakers are known to be looking to get younger and more athletic on the wing, and one option may be coming into focus as the Brooklyn Nets decided to decline the $6.5 million team option on Ziaire Williams. Now that the Los Angeles area native is set to reach free agency, the Lakers are among the teams with interest, per Dan Woike of The Athletic:
According to a league source, one player the Lakers could take a look at in free agency is Brooklyn small forward Ziaire Williams, who had his team option declined by the Nets on Sunday. The Lakers have desires to get younger and more athletic on the wing, and Williams is coming off back-to-back seasons in Brooklyn where he averaged more than 10 points and shot better than 34 percent from 3-point range.
The Nets declined his $6.25 million option for next season while dealing with a roster crunch.
The bet for the Lakers would be that at 6-9 with a nearly 40-inch vertical leap, that Williams could be an impact defensive player with room for growth on the offensive side of the ball. He has fans inside the Lakers’ facility.
Williams has some ties to the Lakers organization as he was a high school teammate of Bronny James’ at Sierra Canyon in Chatsworth. He was drafted 10th overall by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021 out of Stanford and got off to a slow start in his career before coming on strong in Brooklyn.
In 56 games (13 starts ) for the Nets last season, Williams averaged 10.2 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 42.5% from the field and 34.3% from 3-point range in 22.9 minutes per game.
It remains to be seen what Williams will command on the free agent market, but he could be a cheaper wing option with high upside for the Lakers if they don’t land some of their other targets.
Lakers interested in Cameron Johnson, Dean Wade, Jock Landale
Some other players the Lakers have been linked to ahead of the start of free agency are Cameron Johnson, Dean Wade and Jock Landale.
As one of the only teams with significant cap space, the Lakers are naturally going to be linked to a lot of free agent and trade pieces with Rob Pelinka having the ability to go in a variety of different directions with the roster in the coming days.
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