Los Angeles Lakers: Klutch clients Dion Waiters and J.R. Smith may be free agent targets

After sitting out the NBA trade deadline and missing out on free agent Darren Collison, the Los Angeles Lakers may be looking at two Klutch clients next.

The Los Angeles Lakers certainly can’t be considered trade deadline winners after sitting out the proceedings and watching their cross-town (and fellow Staples Center tenants) LA Clippers trade for Marcus Morris.

Fortunately for them, the buyout period is an age-old consolation prize for teams that sit on their hands at the trade deadline. True to form the Lakers have their eyes on two members of the extended family, free agent Klutch clients J.R. Smith and Dion Waiters.

Smith hasn’t played organized basketball since being allowed to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in December of 2018, although he was not given his release and his contract was on the trade block last summer. As a free agent, he could sign with the Lakers on a pro-rated veteran minimum contract.

While there are no assurances such a move is even expected, it’s believed that he’ll get a workout in the coming days.

Marc Stein notes in the above tweet that the Lakers were the top candidate for Darren Collison‘s services, but he has decided to stay retired. This does narrow the field of options for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Perhaps more interesting (and more up-to-date) than Smith is Dion Waiters, as reported by Adrian Wojnarowski.

Before the turn of the new year, Waiters had already been suspended by the Miami Heat three times this season for a total of 23 games. His suspensions have been for such things as “continued insubordination”, “failure to adhere to team policies” and “violation of team rules”.

This constitutes a big deal. Waiters made nice after his final suspension which ended around Christmas and even managed to get some vital minutes with the injury-ravaged Heat, but the second that team president Pat Riley had the chance, he dumped Waiters on the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies promptly waived Waiters, clearly wanting him nowhere near their invaluable young core. If there’s one player archetype you don’t want around your young core, it’s the “mutineer” archetype.

As a result, the Grizzlies are on the hook to pay the final two years and $24.75 million of the four-year, $52 million contract Waiters signed in 2017.

The Los Angeles Lakers have strong leadership, perhaps the strongest leadership in the NBA, with LeBron James at the helm. James has experience with Dion Waiters from playing with him in his first season back with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but that was a short-lived experience after he was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline.

The Lakers have made some interesting choices with how they construct their team, occasionally plugging in oddly-fitting pieces to build the team they want around LeBron James. They’ve even gone outside of the box in hiring Jason Kidd as an assistant coach in spite of obvious concerns about a proverbial coach-killer as a lead assistant.

They’ve proven that they’re more than willing to take chances, but there’s no reason to take this chance. LeBron James knows what he’s getting into if he green-lights a move to sign Waiters, but this is a quintessential case of caveat emptor; buyer beware.