Los Angeles Lakers: 10 best small forwards in team history

9. Adrian Dantley (1977-79)

Before he was a two-time NBA scoring champion with the Utah Jazz, or a key contributor on the early versions of the Detroit Pistons in the “Bad Boys” era, Adrian Dantley was a young rising star with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Dantley was 21 years old when he came to L.A. in a late-1977 trade from the Indiana Pacers. He scored 21 points in his Lakers debut, then dropped 36 in his fourth outing.

The 6’5″ Notre Dame legend averaged 19.4 points per game that season, the second-leading scorer on a squad that featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes and Norm Nixon. Dantley added 7.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game.

The next year, Dantley averaged 17.3 points per game, third on the team behind Kareem and Wilkes. For the second straight year, however, L.A. was sent home early in the playoffs by the Seattle SuperSonics.

Dantley was traded during the offseason — the same offseason in which the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson — to Utah in exchange for eventual Hall of Fame forward Spencer Haywood.

With the Jazz, Dantley blossomed and put together the bulk of his own Hall of Fame resume.