Lou Williams Signs with the Lakers: Is 'Showtime' is BACK in LA?
By Rob Perez
No, lol, dear lord no.
Free agent Lou Williams has agreed to a 3-year, $21 million deal with Lakers, league sources tell Yahoo
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 5, 2015
In all seriousness: Hey! This is kind of like … a good signing for the Los Angeles Lakers? Lou Williams is the NBA’s reigning “Sixth Man of the Year” Winner, coming off a career-best season in which he averaged:
- 15.5 Points per game
- 2.1 Assists per game
- 1.1 Steals per game
- 2 Girlfriends per game
in 80 total appearances for the Toronto Raptors during the 2014-2015 NBA campaign, and can certainly fill up the box score (the point column, at least…) with the best of ’em. There’s more good news: LA didn’t overpay him! The contract is market value for someone of Lou’s services, and should only be a drop in Mitch Kupchak’s salary cap bucket when said salary cap increases before the 2016-2017 season.
In addition, the Lakers agreed “in principle” to acquire Roy Hibbert from the Indiana Pacers. Yay!
Yahoo Sources: Pacers finalizing terms on a trade to send center Roy Hibbert to the Lakers. Hibbert's been informed he's headed to Lakers.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 4, 2015
Per Adrian Wojnarowski’s report:
" The final hurdle in the deal centers on the 15 percent trade kicker that activates with Hibbert and his $15.5 million salary for the 2015-16 moving to the Lakers. Los Angeles has the salary-cap space to take on that salary and the $2.3 million trade kicker – essentially a bonus the Pacers must pay Hibbert – but Los Angeles wants to find a creative way to preserve more cap room in the deal, league sources told Yahoo Sports. After the Lakers absorb the $2.3 million trade kicker, it will leave them with less than $5 million available under the cap to spend elsewhere in free agency. "
Regardless whether these moves were ‘smart’ or not, let’s be honest: Lou Williams and Roy Hibbert are not the ‘final pieces’ to any puzzle, nor, are they single-handily going to get an NBA team to the promise land. It was a thoroughly disappointing free agency period for the Lakers, as they had high hopes of surrounding D'Angelo Russell with a bonafide superstar, but, whiffed on signing pretty much every available ‘elite’ player.
Now that these deals are complete, Mitch, please go and sign J.R. Smith so that this can be the most entertaining team ever and Kobe/Swaggy P/J.R. can get their own E! reality TV show….