The Los Angeles Lakers’ front office entered NBA free agency earlier this month with a lot of pressure on its shoulders to bolster the roster around the duo of LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
After getting bounced early in the playoffs, the Lakers understand that to compete in a strong Western Conference, they need complementary players on the wings and a big man who can be a factor on both ends of the floor. James, who is 41 years old, isn’t getting any younger and might have one year left in Los Angeles.
With that in mind, Lakers fans wanted to see the team bring back veteran Dorian Finney-Smith, who is the perfect 3-and-D wing and knows how to play with Doncic. However, Los Angeles did not re-sign him.
Instead, they let Finney-Smith walk, and he signed a massive four-year, $52.7 million contract with the Houston Rockets, who acquired Kevin Durant before free agency began. As you can imagine, Lakers fans were not happy as they watched a contender poach one of their players to bolster their defense.
Then, to make matters worse, when the details about Finney-Smith’s contract were revealed, it made the Lakers look bad as they could’ve done more to keep the veteran wing around.
Only the first two years of the 32-year-old wing’s four-year deal are guaranteed, which means the cash cumulative amount is only $26 million. The third-year (2027-28) is non-guaranteed and won’t become guaranteed until June 29, 2027.
Then the fourth year of the deal (2028-29) is a player option worth $13.3 million, which could be a steal at that point. Simply put, the Rockets got a great deal that only keeps them on the hook for two years.
Meanwhile, Finney-Smith has an incentive to continue to play at a high level. That was great GM work by Rafael Stone, and something that Rob Pelinka should’ve done.
Remember, before the veteran wing reached free agency, the Lakers could’ve tried keep DFS around despite his $15.38 million option for next season. But he declined it, with no intentions to re-sign in L.A,
In fact, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst mentioned on The Hoop Collective podcast that Finney-Smith wasn’t happy with how things went down in Los Angeles (h/t PFSN).
“The LeBron stuff, not ideal. And that is a guy that Luka grew up with; he was his favorite player growing up. And just quite frankly, like the way the Dorian Finney-Smith thing went down… not ideal, he’s one of Luka’s all-time favourite teammates…I don’t think that Dorian Finney-Smith left really thrilled with how the Lakers’ front office handled that whole situation, which isn’t ideal.”
When you factor all these things together, the Lakers can only blame themselves for failing to bring back Finney-Smith. Granted, the veteran forward isn’t much of a scorer, but he averaged 7.9 points per game on 39.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
However, you like what Finney-Smith brings defensively as he guards a lot of different guys on the floor, which takes pressure off James and Doncic, who aren’t great defenders.
That said, Lakers fans better hope that Jake LaRavia (two-year, $12M), Jaxson Hayes (one-year, $3.4M), and DeAndre Ayton (two-year, $16.21M) can give them something, or this team will be out again in the first round next season.
