The Los Angeles Lakers elected to use the entire taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Chris Kaman to a one-year contract, which was a curious move for a couple reasons:
Los Angeles Lakers waste entire mid-level exception on Chris Kaman
-Kaman certainly isn’t the ideal Mike D’Antoni player.
-Kaman can score, but is inefficient, a bad passer, a mediocre rebounder and a poor defender. Basically, he’s only effective when the offense is tailored to him, and he’s only mildly useful even in those situations.
-Bringing in Kaman means sometimes breaking up the Pau Gasol/Jordan Hill duo that was actually very good in limited minutes last season. The Lakers outscored opponents by 10.1 points per 100 possessions in the 164 minutes Hill and Gasol shared the court, per NBA.com, and while the sample size is small, it does seem like their games complement each other well. The Lakers need depth, obviously, but they could have found that with a younger, less expensive, more cerebral player.
-Using the entire taxpayer mid-level exception on a big man when the Lakers badly need some wing shooting and athleticism doesn’t seem like a wise decision. (As I write this, the Lakers are signing Nick Young for the minimum, which was a nice recovery.)
All in all, it’s an uninspiring signing.
GRADE: C-
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