Lakers News: How Darvin Ham Feels About LA's Newest Big Man
As Eric Pincus predicted yesterday, your Los Angeles Lakers did indeed opt to make some new peripheral roster additions today, waiving shooting guard Davon Reed to add defensive-oriented combo guard Shaquille Harrison and LeBron James' former Cleveland Cavaliers running mate Tristan Thompson, a thoroughly washed-up power forward/center.
Reed, who never cracked the team's rotation, was only on a non-guaranteed minimum deal for 2023-24 and thus won't affect LA's cap.
Ahead of today's ongoing matchup against the gratuitously tanking 37-44 Utah Jazz, Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham reflected on the addition of Thompson to the team, although in my opinion the more potentially impactful addition is Harrison, an athletic point-of-attack defender with some true upside.
"With Tristan... just have backup, just in case of an injury, and what he brings, his spirit, his positivity, as well [as] the way he's played," Ham reflected. "Years and years [of] championship-level basketball, championship pedigree. Great guy to be around, great teammate. Hear nothing but great things about him."
"Having coached against him for a bunch of years, he and I have always had a great rapport throughout his career, big fan of him," Ham relayed. "Watched him back when he was at playing at Texas [the University of Texas at Austin], but just another great guy to add and a serviceable player if we need to go in that direction."
Thompson, 32, hasn't been rostered all year. He split his last season, 2021-22, across three clubs: the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls. All told, he averaged 6.0 points on 52.8% shooting, 5.1 rebounds and 0.6 assists. He was essentially useless for a Chicago team desperate for size in the playoffs last year, and lost his backup center role to the 6'5" Derrick Jones Jr. Thompson averaged just 0.8 points and 1.6 rebounds playing 7.6 mop-up minutes a night.
In his halcyon days, he was a key role player for a string of NBA Finals-bound Cleveland Cavaliers teams from 2015-18 alongside LeBron James. Thompson was a starter for the 2016 championship-winning Cavs.
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