The Los Angeles Lakers quiet offseason has continued, as the team missed out on Klay Thompson and countless other players who could’ve made a potential impact.
Looking for ways to improve their team, Stephen Noh of The Sporting News put together a list on July 1 of the 12 “best” free agent targets after missing out on Thompson, including controversial forward Miles Bridges.
Bridges, 26, sat out all of the 2022-23 NBA season as a result of a domestic violence case from June 2022. Bridges also faced three charges for an alleged violation of a domestic violence protection order on October 6, 2023.
The NBA suspended Bridges for 30 games due to the charges and sentencing. 20 of those games were considered to have already been served due to missing the entire season the year prior, so he had to serve just 10 games in 2023-24.
Bridges ‘Would Give the Lakers an Upgrade’
The Los Angeles Lakers have 15 players on their roster, meaning they’d have to get rid of a player to sign a free agent. They could do a sign-and-trade for Bridges, which is the likelier outcome, but it doesn’t give them many options in other areas.
Schuyler Callihan of Sports Illustrated wrote that Bridges would be an upgrade over Cam Reddish, and he could play the four depending on if Rui Hachimura is moved in the sign-and-trade.
“After missing out on Klay Thompson and some other key free agents, the Lakers need to look to add from that next tier of talent. The last thing they can do in an extremely competitive Western Conference is just sit back and wait for something to fall into their lap,” Callihan wrote in a July 2 column exploring the best fits for Bridges.
“Bridges would give the Lakers an upgrade over Cam Reddish at small forward or he could slide into the four if Rui Hachimura is involved in the deal.”
Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported on July 3 that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said he’ll be “aggressive” in attempting to upgrade the roster, which leads to some optimism about improving the current team.
“I think we’re gonna always be aggressive to try to make roster upgrades and will be relentless to continue to look at what we can do,” Pelinka said.
“This is the season of being mindful of all the different things we can approach to improve the roster. So we’re in the midst of that as we speak. That will continue in the coming days, and it often spills into Vegas, where all the GMs meet and gather, and other deals get done. But we’ll stay aggressive.”
Bridges is one of the top players left on the market after the first week of free agency and has reported interest from the Los Angeles Clippers, so Pelinka has to be aggressive if they want to land the Michigan native.
How Bridges Would Help the Lakers
As a player, Bridges would give the Los Angeles Lakers a lot of what they need. He’s a bigger wing who can score the basketball efficiently and do other things on the court.
In the 2023-24 season, he averaged 21.0 points and 7.3 rebounds while shooting 46.2% from the field and 34.9% from 3-point range on 6.5 attempts per game.
He was once a 40.0% 3-point shooter in 2020-21 on 4.4 attempts per game, so the possibility of being more efficient in that department than he was a year ago with LeBron James and Anthony Davis opening up the offense is possible.
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