5 Best Value Free Agents for L.A. Lakers to Pursue in 2015 NBA Free Agency
Winning in the NBA is about extracting the most value possible out of your players. When players outperform their contracts, their teams pick up extra wins.
The Los Angeles Lakers must comb through the free agent market to find players capable of providing the most bang for their buck.
Acquiring superstars is the surest way to see that happen. With the ceiling of maximum salaries restricting the earning power of the top players in the game, the best of the best easily outplay their deals.
But superstars alone are not enough. You need to build a deep roster full of valuable contributors around those stars to make it to the promised land. Guys playing at or near the minimum salary who play like guys making eight figures.
Two of the best examples this past season were the San Antonio Spurs' Danny Green and the Atlanta Hawks' DeMarre Carroll.
For $4 million, Green provided the Spurs with 7.8 Win Shares, while Carroll produced 7.0 Win Shares for a meager $2.5 million (For reference, Carmelo Anthony pumped out 2.9 Win Shares for around $22.5 million). That's insane value and a big reason why those teams were in title contention this year.
It just so happens that both men are on the free agent market this summer, but teams are going to have to spend a lot more to secure their future services.
Instead of paying the going rate for that kind of solid production, the Lakers need to find the next Green or Carroll and bank the extra wins without breaking the bank themselves.
Here are five free agents who are worthy candidates.
Austin Rivers
1 of 5
Yes, that Austin Rivers. The one who had arguably the worst rookie season for a lottery pick in the history of the NBA.
Why Rivers? Because his stock couldn't get much lower. The mere fact that his fourth-year option (at just over $3 million) was declined shows how little he is thought of.
But he showed some signs with the Los Angeles Clippers, particularly in the postseason.
Rivers single-handedly swung multiple playoff games in the Clippers' favor. That's not something to dismiss out of hand. Confidence is one thing Rivers doesn't lack, though often it's that same trait that gets him into trouble.
If he can let go of any aspirations of being a star and accept his role as a microwave scorer off the bench, Rivers can be in the Sixth Man of the Year conversation for the next decade. He has the speed and quickness to get into the lane at will, and has learned how to finish in traffic.
A 49 percent shooter at the rim as a rookie, Rivers converted over 63 percent of those attempts after joining the Clips—and bumped that number up over 65 percent during the postseason.
His three-point shot regressed slightly after an uptick in 2014, but he managed to knock down 37 percent of his treys in the playoffs (small sample size alert!).
If he can rein in some of his bad habits and continue to refine the periphery of his game, Rivers can be type of irrational confidence guy off the bench who can swing games and whole series in the playoffs. He's worth a flier on the cheap.
Al-Farouq Aminu
2 of 5
Aminu was in a similar situation as Austin Rivers. Despite his lottery-pick pedigree, his option was declined and he almost fell out of the league.
He managed to resuscitate his career with the Dallas Mavericks in 2015, and after a strong showing in their brief playoff run, Aminu will surely opt out of his $1.1 million deal for 2016 to hit the open market.
Aminu would be among the top targets for 3-and-D players this summer—with the likes of Danny Green and DeMarre Carroll—if not for the little issue that he can't really shoot.
He had nearly stopped taking threes altogether, but started firing away more in Rick Carlisle's offense this season. However, the lanky forward only managed to connect on 27 percent of his long-distance tries.
Aminu has improved on offense though, from being a total liability to a functional cog. He is a shrewd cutter off the ball and a strong finisher around the basket. He moves the ball willingly ad drastically cut his turnover rate this season.
In fact, the Mavs produced points at a nearly identical rate whether Aminu was on the floor or not.
The difference came on the other end, where Dallas improved by nearly four points per 100 possessions with Aminu out there, according to NBA.com.
Aminu is a long, rangy defender who can guard multiple positions. He racks up steals and blocks aplenty and is one of the top wing rebounders in the league. His length and rebounding ability also give him the versatility to slide to the 4, where his lack of floor spacing isn't quite so costly.
With the impact he makes defensively, Aminu could become a bigger, quieter version of Tony Allen. It shouldn't cost the Lakers much to find out.
Thomas Robinson
3 of 5
It's been a very rocky start to Robinson's career. The former No. 5 overall selection has already played for four different clubs (and been waived by a fifth) in three seasons.
Keeping with our theme though, it's worth it to take a low-cost, low-risk chance on a failed lottery pick. There's talent in Robinson waiting to come out. It'll take patience and the right scenario for him to start producing on the court.
At the very least, Robinson can develop into an energy guy. He's a beast on the boards, who would have been seventh in the NBA in total rebounding percentage had he qualified for the leaderboard.
After signing with the Philadelphia 76ers to finish out the season, Robinson played more freely, averaging a robust 17 points and 15 boards per 36 minutes. Of course, it's easy to put up video game numbers in the Sixers' system, but Robinson showed he can play.
He's not a rim protector and he has to stop fouling so much, but he can be a Tristan Thompson (with less defense and more offense) or a Jordan Hill (before Hill turned to the dark side in 2015) type of asset.
Alexis Ajinca
4 of 5
Finding a backup center who doesn't kill you whenever he's in the game is important, and Ajinca is an under-the-radar name to fit that bill.
Ajinca was a solid rotation piece for the New Orleans Pelicans this season, posting career highs pretty much across the board. He averaged 17 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks per 36 minutes on 55 percent shooting from the field and 82 percent from the line.
He's more than just a finisher on offense. As his charity stripe accuracy indicates, Ajinca can step out and knock down the mid-range jumper as well. Nearly a third of his attempts were mid-rangers, and he canned a healthy 48.5 percent of those tries, per NBA.com.
His height and length make him a deterrent at the rim. According to NBA.com, opponents shot nearly six percent worse than usual inside of six feet when Ajinca was contesting the shot.
It will probably cost more than his old minimum salary to land the competent two-way big, but he will provide more value than other options available.
John Jenkins
5 of 5
The Lakers are in desperate need of outside shooting, and Jenkins may be the cheapest route to acquiring said shooting.
Our third entry from the draft class of 2012 hasn't gotten much of a shot at the pro level yet, but the former first-round pick deserves one.
Jenkins played sparingly for the Atlanta Hawks in 2015, logging less than 300 minutes all told. He performed when given the opportunity though, hitting nearly half his shots and 40 percent of his threes.
His career true shooting percentage of 57.7 percent is identical to the figures posted by LeBron James and Goran Dragic this season. Jenkins was also a long-range sniper in college, draining nearly 44 percent of his threes over three seasons at Vanderbilt.
It's tough to speculate on how his overall game has developed since leaving the SEC, with such few minutes under his belt (and most of those coming in garbage time), but he has one clearly defined NBA skill—shooting.
The same could have been said for Danny Green a few years ago. Taking a chance on someone just as unlikely as Green once was could yield that type of massive value down the road
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