The Los Angeles Lakers are currently focused on building a championship-level roster around Luka Doncic in order to get back into contention. One way to do that is to bring in players he has a history with and they did exactly that with both Quentin Grimes and Jaden Hardy.
Specifically for Hardy, the Lakers acquired him in a trade from the Washington Wizards for Deandre Ayton and two second-round picks. After showcasing his offensive talent in his stint with Washington, the 24-year-old is ready to play next to Doncic again in front of Lakers fans.
“Me and Luka, and we got Grimes too on the other one. When we were in Dallas, I feel like we had a great group and I feel like just being back with them, playing in front of the best fans in the world is going to be super exciting and I can’t wait to do it,” Hardy said on the Lakers YouTube channel.
“Whenever I was playing alongside Luka, he used to always instill confidence into the young players, tell them to keep going and I feel like that helped me a lot when I was a rookie. And playing alongside him then in my second year where we went to the finals, had a finals run, he was big for me during that time and during that stretch. And he was someone that I could lean on and talk to. So, I reached out to him and told him how excited I was to be back with him, playing alongside him and how I couldn’t wait to get back into the gym with him and put some work in. He got back, told me welcome, how excited he was and for sure we’re going to put some good work in.”
Bench scoring has been an area of weakness for several years now for the Lakers and they tried to address it by bringing in Collin Sexton and Hardy. Having Hardy as an additional flamethrower offensively should help, but head coach JJ Redick would have to be mindful about the potential defensive limitations.
Regardless, in a pinch there is a chance for the Michigan native to carve out a back-of-the-bench role where he could average 10-15 minutes a contest. In 23 games with the Wizards, Hardy averaged 12.6 points on 44.3% from the field and 42% from 3-point range, which would be nice to have in Los Angeles.
Jaden Hardy on what Lakers fans can expect from him this season
There are a lot of new faces on the Lakers this upcoming season, so much so that proper expectations cannot be laid out due to the uncertainty. Hard recently outlined what fans can expect from him this upcoming season though, wanting to give it his all for the purple and gold.
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