Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons signing Tyson Chandler would be smart

2. Great rim-roller and screen-setter

One of the standouts of the Los Angeles Lakers’ opening nine games has been the play of JaVale McGee, who is having a career year in scoring this season at 15.1 points per game. A lot of these come from alley-oops, finding space in the paint where teammates can dish it off to him and running the rim after diving from pick-and-rolls.

McGee has been the perfect fit in the middle of the Lakers’ spacious offense by taking advantage of the openings in the paint provided by defenders focusing their attention on the playmakers on the perimeter. McGee’s screening talents have developed since his time with the Golden State Warriors. He was an effective player for the Warriors when given the time, and is finding plenty of success with the Lakers.

After McGee, the Lakers have literally zero talented rim-runners. The offense becomes one-dimensional with McGee on the bench, Johnathan Williams and Ivica Zubac have had small spurts of positivity when replacing McGee, but the addition of Tyson Chandler would give the Lakers a like-for-like replacement when McGee is resting.

Chandler is known for four things: Hard screens, rim-rolling, rebounding and defense (we’ll get to this shortly). He has forged an 18-year career by being great at those four things. He still is in solid shape, and will be able to take advantage of the same space that McGee has found success with.

Chandler is also an underrated passer, with the ability to find open shooters when catching passes after rolling to the rim. Adding Chandler impacts this offense in a positive way. Having a floor-spacing 5 is something NBA teams covet, but the impact of a great screen-setter that can roll to the rim and make the right reactionary play with the ball in his hand is still a great skill-set to have on your team. The Lakers would now have two of them.