Lakers: This Special Skill Should Make Thomas Bryant A Roster Mainstay
6'10" Los Angeles Lakers center Thomas Bryant is thriving in his second go-around with L.A., and he's showing off a more well-rounded offensive game in the process.
Bryant is connecting on 42.1% of his 1.2 triples a night, something of a rarity for a traditional rim-rolling big man. For his career, he's actually proven to be a consistently decent shooter from deep -- at least, when it's in the corner. He is a career 35.5% shooter on 1.5 tries a night.
Bryant was selected by the Utah Jazz with the No. 42 pick out of the University of Indiana in the 2017 NBA draft. Bryant and No. 30 pick Josh Hart, a shooting guard were rerouted to the Lakers in exchange for the No. 28 pick, Tony Bradley. Hart is currently a key role player for the Portland Trail Blazers, earning $12.6 million a year. Tony Bradley, by the way, has been out of the Chicago Bulls' rotations entirely for most of the past two seasons. So I'd say the Lakers won that deal pretty handily.
In just 15 games for L.A. during his uneventful 2017-18 rookie season, Bryant played sparingly, averaging 1.5 points and 1.1 rebounds a night. L.A. waived Bryant in the subsequent offseason. He was then claimed by the Wizards, with whom he would remain until the summer of 2022. An ACL tear kept him out for much of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons.
A floor-spacing big man who can rebound and roll to the rack is quite the commodity in a veteran's minimum pickup. Bryant may only be this cheap because of his checkered injury history. L.A., one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the league, will take all the help it can get in the long range gunning department.
