D’Antoni has praised Steve Blake, who has come into his own as a starter in place of Nash, averaging career highs in assists (7.4) and 3-point shooting (.452).
“I’ve always liked (Blake),” said D’Antoni. “I think he’s great. He hardly makes a mistake defensively; he’s always in the right position, now I think he has confidence. I’ll take him any day. I think he can play.”
Primarily a backup at 33, Blake will be easier to retain.
Other players such as Nick Young, Jodie Meeks and Jordan Farmar appear to have reached their individual ceilings as young veterans.
Young is a high volume scorer that can dazzle with his step-back dribble crossover but leave you scratching your head at his shot selection. If Young continues to play well, he can forgo his $1.2 million player option and may leave his hometown Lakers for a larger payday.
Meeks is a pure shooter capable of coming off screens or making shots beyond the arc. It’s hard to imagine him shooting better from the floor than he has this season, both overall (.503) and from deep (.468). Meeks may look to land an offer similar to Kyle Korver if he continues his efficient shooting for his first big payday.
Farmar is one of the league’s top backup point guards who can score and has developed as a floor general this season, according to D’Antoni. He has enjoyed a warm homecoming after leaving as a free agent to sign with the Nets in 2010. The best moments of his career have been in Los Angeles, and he would be best suited returning.
The Lakers have also caught lightning in a bottle with Xavier Henry and Wesley Johnson, deemed reclamation projects at the start of the season. Both credit D’Antoni’s free-flowing offense and uptempo pace for allowing them to run the court in transition, where they’re most affective.
Henry is averaging a career-high 8.4 points while Johnson has become a respectable 3-point shooter (.388) and defender, averaging career-highs in rebounds (3.7) and blocks (1.4).
Both are focused on winning and playing in the right situation after struggling in previous destinations. Expect both to give the Lakers a small discount if they maintain their level of play.
Finally, Kaman remains a viable veteran center that can play 20-25 minutes in the right system. Unfortunately for Kaman, D’Antoni’s fast-paced offensive system doesn’t fit his skill set as a half-court player.
Kaman will most likely end up signing his third consecutive one-year deal, which is somewhat surprising considering his talent level. He is an example of how the Collective Bargaining Agreement has “pinched” the market, in his own words, for veterans in the middle to end of their careers.
Therefore, it’s inaccurate to say that Bryant is selfish and the Lakers lack financial flexibility going forward to retain or upgrade at certain positions.
For Bryant to lead the Lakers to his sixth championship, he must return to his pre-injury form, and general manager Mitch Kupchak must make the most of the cap space that’ll become available after July 1.
(RELATED: How the Lakers are Surviving Without Kobe and Nash)
Michael Scotto is a Sheridan Hoops NBA columnist. You can follow him on Twitter.
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rr, I agree that Sessions is somewhat inrtgiuing as an alternative to the players we have now due to his propensity to take the ball to the hoop. But to my eye at least, I’m not persuaded that is the biggest issue with respect to our inconsistent offense. I think there is far too much congestion inside the lane area most of the time because our bigs along with Kobe look to post up our smaller opponents the majority of the time we have the ball. Our opponents don’t respect the consistency of our perimeter game at all and pack their defenses in accordingly.Sessions doesn’t appear to me at least to have a particularly reliable perimeter game as compared to several other PG’s that we might obtain (Calderon, Bayless, Lowry). Again to my eye at least, the way to open up the middle and in large part remove the persistent double teaming of our stars is to make our opponents pay by consistently delivering on a perimeter game they have to respect. Beasley could help with that when he decides to show up as he has a nice stroke, although he appears to possess the ball too long at times frittering away the shot clock as Kobe does as well. My choice would be Houston’s Kyle Lowry via a Gasol trade if we could pry him away, and included in that would have to be additional consideration for the hole at PF that Pau’s departure would leave. The addition of Patrick Patterson in that deal would be sweet. If Lowry is unattainable then I would be interested in either Calderon or Bayless from Toronto and in that scenario we keep Pau.