{"id":190464,"date":"2025-09-29T18:35:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/190464\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T18:35:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T18:35:08","slug":"lakers-sign-nick-smith-jr-to-two-way-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/190464\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers sign Nick Smith Jr. to two-way contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">A day before training camp is set to start, the Lakers have filled their final two-way spot. On Monday, the team announced they had signed Nick Smith Jr. to a two-way deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Smith was waived by the Hornets late last week just ahead of Charlotte\u2019s training camp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Smith Jr. has spent the last two seasons playing for the Hornets. He\u2019s a guard with a good shot from deep. Smith Jr. shot 43% from 3-point range during his rookie season. Last year, the 20-year-old averaged 9.9 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists with the Hornets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One of his best games during the 2024-25 NBA season came against the Raptors late into the season. He scored 28 points in the 126-96 loss, going 6-9 from outside the arc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Smith Jr. is still a young prospect at 21 years old and the hope is that with him part of the Lakers organization, he can establish a role for himself in the league.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With Smith Jr. joining the roster, the Lakers also waived center Kylor Kelly. Los Angeles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.silverscreenandroll.com\/lakers-news\/94173\/lakers-report-kylor-kelly-training-camp-south-bay-center\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed Kelly to an Exhibit-10 deal<\/a> in August. He was waived to create an open roster spot heading into training camp.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Lakers have demonstrated a commitment to utilizing their two-way players during the JJ Redick era. Last season, Koloko played in 37 of a possible 50 games on a two-way deal, and <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 started on a two-way contract<\/a> and was converted to a standard deal, cracking the Lakers\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ll see how this year\u2019s trio does with the Lakers and at South Bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Also, the three players on two-ways are subject to change. Last season, the Lakers made plenty of changes to their two-way personnel throughout the season, trying to find the right players to fill those spots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So, just because Koloko, Ma\u00f1on and Smith Jr. are in these positions now, it doesn\u2019t mean they are locked in. They can either get waived or move into a best-case scenario, where they earn a permanent roster spot, as Goodwin did last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A day before training camp is set to start, the Lakers have filled their final two-way spot. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[43364,385,99],"class_list":["post-190464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-lakers-news","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}