{"id":778426,"date":"2026-07-04T11:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778426\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:36:11","slug":"lakers-re-sign-chris-manon-to-two-way-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778426\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers re-sign Chris Ma\u00f1on to two-way contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Lakers need to find defensive-minded players wherever possible, and they just ensured that one who is already familiar with the franchise will remain in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">On Friday night, the Lakers made the re-signing of Chris Ma\u00f1on official, bringing the guard back on a two-way deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">This move was expected, as the Lakers had reportedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/lakers-rumors\/120555\/lakers-chris-manon-nba-free-agency-qualifying-offer-two-way-restricted\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tendered a qualifying offer to Ma\u00f1on<\/a>. Clearly, the Lakers liked what they saw from Ma\u00f1on when he was on a two-way contract last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ma\u00f1on didn\u2019t play much as a two-way player, appearing in just nine regular season games for the Lakers. However, he played a lot more with the team\u2019s G League affiliate, the South Bay Lakers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With South Bay, he played in 33 regular season games and started in 26 contests. He averaged 10.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in the G League.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">His defensive play is what really stood out. Ma\u00f1on is a great on-ball defender. He\u2019s able to disrupt opponents and force turnovers. He registered 1.9 steals with South Bay, which was a team-high.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Thanks to his defensive play, Ma\u00f1on was named to the 2025-26 NBA G League All-Defensive Team. He also finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With Ma\u00f1on anchoring the perimeter defense, South Bay had a great year and was the top overall seed in the Western Conference with a 26-10 regular season record. They made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals, where they were eliminated by the Stockton Kings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With Ma\u00f1on back, he can continue splitting up his duties between South Bay and the main team, providing some backcourt help for the purple and gold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Lakers have had a ton of success with their two-way players. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/2025\/2\/7\/24361159\/lakers-rumors-jordan-goodwin-armel-traore-two-way-contract-g-league-south-bay\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jordan Goodwin<\/a> and Scotty Pippen Jr. were both on two-way deals with the Lakers, and now each is on standard contracts with other NBA teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Ma\u00f1on is currently participating in Summer League action with the Lakers, and so are Okereke and Suder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lakers need to find defensive-minded players wherever possible, and they just ensured that one who is already&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,349504,38926,85],"class_list":["post-778426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-lakers-free-agency","tag-lakers-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}