Lakers News: LA Listed As Landing Spot For Former MVP Guard In Free Agency

Your Los Angeles Lakers could use some cost-effective veteran help this summer, and one beat reporter has identified a fresh free agent fit.

Now that the New York Knicks declined their $15.6 million team option on deep-bench point guard Derrick Rose, the former three-time All-Star and 2011 MVP might be able to carve out a rotation role on a title hopeful, writes Steve Popper of Newsday. On the Knicks beat, Popper has enjoyed a front row seat to Rose's recent NBA dotage in New York.

Popper reports that the 34-year-old, now an unrestricted free agent, will most likely not return to the Knicks on a cheaper deal, but will instead seek greener pastures.

The oft-injured vet may not have the same explosiveness or ability to score above the rim as he did several knee surgeries ago, but he remains a crafty scorer and respected locker room leader.

Popper numbers the Lakers among four playoff hopefuls — along with the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and the team that drafted him first overall in 2008, his hometown Chicago Bulls —that may have a real rotation role for him next season.

Rose was a key part of the Knicks' rotation upon first being flipped back to the team in 2021 (the Bulls had initially traded him away to New York in 2016), and was promoted by longtime head coach Tom Thibodeau to a starting gig during the 2021 playoffs, but had been ultimately removed from the team's rotation halfway through the 2022-23 season in favor of a more youth-oriented approach to its backcourt. Banishing Rose from his lineup proved to be one of Thibodeau's more inspired choices last year, and led to a midseason turnaround.

The Memphis product, who did briefly play alongside current LA All-NBA small forward LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2017-18, just doesn't seem to have much left to give. He's always been a lackluster defender, and his deficiencies on that end of the floor have only worsened with age. As a score-first lead guard with a spotty jumper, he's an awkward fit on most rosters, but especially on a Los Angeles club that needs to surround James and Anthony Davis with shooters and willing passers.

Rose may earn a veteran's minimum deal and another opportunity to pursue his first championship this summer, but whatever team tenders him that money would be burning a roster spot. He's cooked.

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