With wing players dropping rapidly, the Los Angeles Lakers made the decision to sign Travis Wear from their G League affiliate South Bay Lakers to a 10-day contract at the beginning of the month. Wear wound up playing well enough to earn a second 10-day deal.
With Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart still recovering from injuries, Wear has become one of the only players off the bench that Lakers head coach Luke Walton has trusted over the past few games. In addition to proving to be a solid shooter, Wear surprisingly has been a good defensive player.
Now that his second 10-day contract expired Thursday, the Lakers were facing a decision on whether or not to keep him around for the remainder of the season. According to Shams Charania of The Vertical, the team has decided to sign Wear for the rest of the season:
The Lakers are signing forward Travis Wear to a deal for the remainder of the season, league sources tell Yahoo. Wear's second 10-day deal expired tonight.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 23, 2018
Wear’s numbers aren’t anything special as he’s averaging just 4.7 points and 2.2 rebounds in 11 games. He is shooting a more than respectable 38.5 percent from 3-point range, however.
Additionally, Wear has proven that he can hang at the NBA level, and undoubtedly played well enough to stick with the team for their final stretch of games.
As Ingram and Hart look set to return over the next week or so, it’s likely that Wear’s minutes will fall, but his reliability as a shooter, and ability to play both forward spots could keep him a part of the rotation even when the Lakers are back at full strength.
This is the culmination of a roller coaster year for Wear who was a part of the Lakers’ Summer League team and was invited to training camp before being cut. But his play with South Bay led him to the first contract and his play with the main team is the reason he will stick around.
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