Roster - LA Lakers

Lakers sign Jordan!:  Jordan Crawford, that is!  The journeyman combo guard joins the team under a 10 day contract and hopes to impress sufficiently to earn a roster spot for the remainder of the season.  After a successful stint in China including a 72 point outburst for Tianjin Ronggang in 2016, Crawford has plied his craft in the D-League playing for the Grand Rapids Drive.  Known as somewhat of a ‘bench microwave’ type scorer in his previous NLL stints, no less than 8 teams sought the 28 year old’s services.  “I had a few phone calls but ultimately I decided to join the defending Champs ‘cos I was promised a spot in the rotation by gm greenmig.”

Perfect Timing:  And it seems Crawford joins the team at the perfect time as 3 of the Lakers 4 backcourt players will sit out week 17 under injury clouds, including both PG’s in George Hill and Malcolm Brogdon as well as veteran Manu Ginobili.  Crawford will slot right in slated to play 25 minutes at both the 1 and 2 spot.  It remains to be seen what he will deliver but anything near his career NLL averages of 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists would be welcomed by a Lakers team who limps into week 17 with only 8 healthy players.

Mo Buckets:  Joining Hill, Brogdon and Manu on IR will be the starting frontcourt of Nikola Vucevic and Michael Beasley as well as newcomers Ben Bentil and Josh Huestis.  In their absence the Lakers frontcourt will consist of Spencer Hawes and Mo Speights who has been on somewhat of a tear averaging a career high 16.7 points per game including shooting 46% from 3fg, (ranked 5^th in the NLL) making him the outright favourite for 6^th man of the year.  These numbers increasing to 24.6 points and 9 rebounds in his 12 games as a starter.

Another Solid Season:  Despite all this, with 16 games left in the regular season the Lakers sit comfortably in 6^th place out West with 38 wins.  Assuming they perform at their current rate it could be expected that the team will finish with somewhere between 46 and 50 wins for the season possibly ending as high as 5^th but week 17 will surely be a test with 3 starters sitting in street clothes.

Stay tuned for more from your Lakers basketball network.