As the 2020 NBA playoffs approach, the Los Angeles Lakers have continued to tinker with their roster in order to give themselves the best chance at winning an NBA championship.
But with a full roster, the Lakers had to release someone in order to free up a space for a new player, which was done when the team agreed to release guard Troy Daniels.
The timing of the release was important as it allows Daniels to be able to sign with another team and remain playoff eligible. The Lakers would use the open spot in order to sign Dion Waiters and Daniels has found a home himself with another top Western Conference team.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Daniels is set to join the Denver Nuggets for the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season:
Free agent guard Troy Daniels is finalizing a deal with the Denver Nuggets, league sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
With it being near the end of the season, Daniels will earn just the minimum with the Nuggets, but still retains a decent amount of money from the Lakers:
The Nuggets’ cap hit on the veteran guard will be $385,000, with Daniels earning $481K. He will also earn $2 million from the Lakers.
The move makes sense on a lot of levels for Daniels. He joins a playoff-bound team in the Nuggets where he stands to play a much bigger role than he stood to with the Lakers. Denver could use some backcourt help, especially with Gary Harris struggling mightily to shoot from the three-point line this season and Daniels will bring a boost in that sense.
Daniels was never going to be a regular rotation player for the Lakers and his release allowed the team to bring in Waiters who brings a much different skill set. Waiters is more of a playmaker than Daniels and is much more capable of creating his own shot which is something the team needed.
Daniels appeared in 41 games for the Lakers this season, averaging 4.2 points while shooting 35.7 percent from three-point range.
