The Los Angeles Lakers have not exactly hit it out of the park when it comes to free agents over the last few years. It’s hard to pinpoint one impact player they outright signed since Shaquille O’Neal was shipped out of town in 2006.
Outside of Metta World Peace back in 2009, the list of free agents who signed with the Lakers is lacking star power. There have been guys who came to the team via trade like Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and even Trevor Ariza who have made some noise but still, no big name free agent. And some of those guys who signed didn’t exactly pan out with the team.
They’ve missed out on the likes of Carmelo Anthony, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant and LeBron James over the years for a number of reasons. But the Lakers actually made some noise this summer but not by signing a big name free agent player. Instead, the brought back a former player to be their head coach.
According to team president Jeanie Buss, in a piece for ‘Outside the Lines’, the Lakers biggest free agent signing in the last few years was their new head coach, Luke Walton.
It’s hard to deny the impact Luke has made already and is expected to make in the future. Teams around the NBA have held Luke Walton in high regard after seeing his work the last couple of years as an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors and also coming in as an interim head coach while Steve Kerr was out.
He’s viewed as the voice and leader of this new crop of young Lakers talent and Luke might be a big asset going forward when the Lakers try to sell their organization to future free agents.
