{"id":135161,"date":"2025-09-11T02:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135161\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T02:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T02:35:08","slug":"lakers-newly-acquired-6-foot-8-wing-predicted-to-shine-next-to-luka-doncic-in-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/135161\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers\u2019 newly acquired 6-foot-8 wing predicted to shine next to Luka Doncic in 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Lakers’ general manager Rob Pelinka made an effort to supply his generational 26-year-old phenom Luka Don\u010di\u0107 with complementary role players, as the storied franchise added key veterans like Deandre Ayton and Marcus Smart in free agency.<\/p>\n

Don\u010di\u0107 will aim to lead the Lakers back to the mountain-top in his first full season with the team in 2025-26, but he won’t be able to do it alone.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the ex-Dallas Mavericks superstar, one NBA writer has suggested<\/a> that one of Los Angeles’ more underrated additions from this summer could have a huge hand in solidifying their bench rotation. If given the right opportunity, it could be sharpshooting forward Jake LaRavia’s time to shine.<\/p>\n

“LaRavia hasn\u2019t exactly been a household name, playing just 136 games over his first three years in the league as he\u2019s battled injuries,” HoopsHype’s Michael Shearer wrote Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“But the new Los Angeles Laker is in a prime position to feast playing next to\u00a0LeBron James,\u00a0Luka Doncic, and\u00a0Austin Reaves.”<\/p>\n

“LaRavia will likely slot in as a high-minutes backup wing who can play anything from the two to the four. That flexibility should help him earn plenty of court time for a Lakers team that\u2019s still rather top-heavy.”<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles picked up the 23-year-old LaRavia on a two-year, $12 million contract to partially fill the void created by ex-Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith’s departure for the Houston Rockets in free agency.<\/p>\n

With a spot opened up in head coach JJ Redick’s rotation, the versatile wing can inject plenty of life into the Lakers’ bench unit thanks to his lights-out three-point shooting and timely cutting ability.<\/p>\n

In 66 regular season appearances while splitting time between the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings, LaRavia averaged 6.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 0.9 steals. The Grizzlies’ former No. 19 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft also connected on a blistering 42.3% of his looks from distance, a mark that could land the incoming fourth-year forward a major role in the Lakers’ rotation.<\/p>\n

Both Don\u010di\u0107 and 21-time All-Star LeBron James have always relied upon consistent outside shot-makers to cap off drive-and-kick opportunities, and LaRavia appears to fit the bill of a valuable play-finisher.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Mavericks linked to Bulls\u2019 20.4 PPG scorer following Josh Giddey extension<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Lakers’ general manager Rob Pelinka made an effort to supply his generational 26-year-old phenom Luka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-135161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}