Shortly after pulling off the trade to send Lou Williams to the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers made another deal with the Rockets before the NBA trade deadline. The team acquired point guard Tyler Ennis in a swap for Marcelo Huertas giving the Lakers another quick young guard in the backcourt with D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson.
Although the deal for Ennis didn’t seem to be all that substantial at the time, the Syracuse product played well once he earned minutes in the rotation. The 22-year-old guard played arguably the best basketball of his NBA career and now hopes the team will show interest in re-signing him this summer.
Ennis expressed a desire to remain with the Lakers long before his exit interview but reiterated his hopes to stay in Los Angeles to the media on Thursday, via Lakers Nation reporter Serena Winters:
Tyler Ennis will be a free agent. He says he wants to continue being a Laker, but knows his future here is uncertain.
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) April 13, 2017
Ennis has bounced around the league quite a bit during his short time in the NBA. The former 18th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft has now played for four different teams in the league since starting his career with the Phoenix Suns.
Fortunately for Ennis, he may have shown enough to the Lakers brass to merit a call once NBA free agency rolls around in July. Ennis would be a decent backup point guard for Los Angeles and would likely come at a considerable discount compared to other guards that might be available on the open market this summer.
In 22 games with the Lakers, Ennis averaged 7.7 points and 2.4 assists per game shooting 38.9 percent from deep and sported a field-goal percentage of 45.1.
