With 7 victories in 11 games despite the occasional absences of certain executives (Anthony Davis, Rui Hachimura), the Los Angeles Lakers are off to a good start to the 2024-2025 financial year. Holders of the 6th record in the west, the teammates of LeBron James seem to have some ambitions this season for one of the King’s last campaigns in the big league.
Thus the Angelinos, 25th team in Defensive Rating over these first weeks of competition, would actively seek to strengthen their internal sector. And if the Jonas Valanciunas and Nic Claxton tracks seem to have fizzled out, the one that leads to Robert Williams III could well be the right one. According to Dave McMenamin d’ESPN, passing through the podcast by Brian Windhorst The Hoop Collective, the Californian franchise would indeed be working hard on the arrival of the former All-Defensive 2nd Team (in 2022).
Often penalized by injuries since his debut in 2018 (215 matches in 6 years), Robert Williams III is coming off an almost blank season last year in Portland. Back on his feet this season, the former Celtic shines in Oregon. In 3 games and only 18 minutes of playing time, the Louisiana native thus compiled 12.0 pts, 5.7 rebounds, 1.7 stl and 1.7 blk on average, the best figures of his young NBA career. Enough to arouse the interest of the franchise with 18 championship titles, chronically lacking in toughness and physical impact inside.
Sailing above the “first apron” of the salary cap, LA has little room to maneuver to rework its workforce. Only the sending of picks (2 in the first round, 5 in the second) could allow JJ Redick’s men to recover the Time Lord. Unless the Los Angeles Lakers front office manages to integrate a few rotation players (Gabe Vincent? Jalen Hood-Schifino?) to match Robert Williams III’s $12M annual salary. File to follow.
D.R.
