Lakers News: Will The Lakers Guarantee Matt Ryan's Salary?

As of this writing, your Los Angeles Lakers are currently the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA by percentage, at 30.7%, per Basketball Reference.

The fact that very few L.A. players can reliably convert their long-range looks allows opposing defenses to focus on staying well within the three-point line, where they can easily slide inside the paint to clog up drives from stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, as well as sixth man Russell Westbrook.

At present, only four rostered Lakers are making at least 35% of their triples: starting shooting guard Lonnie Walker IV (35.7% on 5.1 tries), reserve guard Austin Reaves (36.1% on 2.8 looks), rookie guard Max Christie (an unsustainable 54.5% on just 1.4 attempts), and deep-bench small forward Matt Ryan (41.9% on 3.1 threes).

In today's NBA, especially on a LeBron James-centric club, fielding a surplus of high-level three-point threats is pretty much essential, which could in part explain why L.A. is off to a brutal 3-10 start this year.

And two of those three-point shooters aren't even signed to guaranteed contracts that will keep them on the team through the 2022-23 season!

One of those, Ryan, made L.A.'s standard 15-man roster as a training camp invitee, as the team quickly realized it would need some help spacing the floor.

Across 10 games for Los Angeles this season, the 25-year-old small forward is averaging 4.7 points on .341/.419/.800 shooting splits. What matters most is not that miserable field goal percentage, but his three-point shooting. 41.9% on 3.1 attempts is excellent. Unfortunately, that and the free-throw shooting (albeit on just 0.5 charity stripe looks a night) are the only NBA-level skills he has for now.

Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes that Ryan's $1.64 million salary for the year will become fully guaranteed after January 10th, 2023. Per McMenamin, the 6'7" swingman is living off the $112K he was paid by the Boston Celtics during the 2021-22 season. He earned a bonus by appearing with the Celtics during their 2022 NBA Finals run (although he did not play one second for the team), which McMenamin reports Ryan has parked in a savings account.

McMenamin reveals that Ryan is currently taking up residence at an extended-stay hotel near L.A.'s El Segundo practice facility, the UCLA Health Training Center. He has yet to buy a car.

"I'm definitely not splurging on anything this year," Ryan noted.

Ryan commented on how he stays ready to contribute, despite grappling with inconsistent playing time as a deep-bench player.

"I thought my 'Welcome to the NBA moment' was after we make that big shot, then we play Utah a couple nights later and I pretty much did nothing," Ryan remarked, per McMenamin. "One night you might have to save the day, the other night you might literally not be asked to do anything. So it's just a matter of just staying ready, trying to be as consistent as possible."