The Los Angeles Lakers have had to move on from a few players this offseason, and Shake Milton wasn’t one of them to make the cut. He was traded to the team from the Brooklyn Nets during the season, but wasn’t able to find a consistent role.
He played 30 games for the Lakers, but only averaged 3.9 points per game. With the litany of moves the team made this offseason, they decided to waive Milton.
He was not claimed and has decided to make a career change. The ABA League announced on X that Milton has signed a two-year contract with KK Partizan in Serbia.
He has spent his whole career in the NBA for the G League, so this will be a big change for Milton. Overseas, he should have a chance to play a lot of minutes and make a bigger impact. What remains to be seen is if this will be the end of his NBA career.
He’s only 28, so he should have some athleticism left in the tank, and he was quick to jump to the ABA League. Perhaps having a bigger role on a professional basketball team is more important to him than riding the bench for an NBA team.
Lakers Urged to Make Lineup Change
With some new players coming in, the Lakers are going to have to consider shaking up their starting lineup. Deandre Ayton is the obvious choice to start at center, but it remains to be seen what Marcus Smart’s role will be.
Lakers beat writer believes that Smart should replace Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup.
“I think that the move to me would clearly be to start Marcus Smart over Rui,” Buha said on his YouTube channel. “I think the one concern with that is just that Rui has tended to perform better as a starter than a bench player. But at the same time, I don’t think that the starting group as previously constructed was good enough defensively — was not even close to being good enough defensively.”
Lakers Ranked 11th in Power Rankings
The Lakers were the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference last season and have made some solid moves this offseason, but not everybody thinks they’re contenders. In Law Murray’s power rankings for The Athletic, he sees the Lakers as the 11th-best team in the NBA.
“James opted in and doesn’t have a contract beyond this season, so that’s been loud,” Murray wrote. “For now, he’s on the team, which should be considered Luka Dončić’s team going forward. And Dončić is now teammates with the top pick of his draft, Ayton, who can certainly do the baseline tasks of a Dončić center: screen, roll, catch lob. Ayton is a good rim protector and an elite rebounder. The concern with Ayton is his motor and availability; when he is out of the play, he stays out of the play. LaRavia is much younger than Finney-Smith, but also a much less renowned defender who is about to step into a 25-minute role for the first time in his career. Smart, LaRavia’s former teammate in Memphis, will be looking to show that he can still contribute after playing in only 54 games in the last two seasons.”
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