Well, the Lakers opened up a roster spot.
The Lakers have waived Shawne Williams, league source tells Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 7, 2014
His contract was unguaranteed and it was going to be guaranteed if he wasn’t let go by the team by 5:00 P.M. Eastern today. I was a bit surprised by the move but with the Lakers opening up a spot, I wonder what the next move is for the Lakers because I don’t believe they’re just going to stand pat.
Williams has played 32 out of a possible 34 games this season. He’s started 11 of those contests and is averaging 5.2 points and 4.5 boards for the season.
I suppose this opens up more time for Chris Kaman, Jordan Hill, and Ryan Kelly, who has been getting a lot of time as of late. But head coach Mike D’Antoni has used so many line-ups so who knows who’s actually getting more time?
Anyway, let’s see what the Lakers do next.
jimmym says
After all the wasted playing opportunities for Hill and Kaman, maybe this is a good thing. Obviously D’antoni had no idea, otherwise why play him so many minutes up to now.
Ko says
From starter to released. Clearly FO and the coach are not on the same page.
gene says
Like I have said many times…less minutes for Williams and Johnson…This is the F.O. making sure D.A. can’t play Williams anymore..
minorthreatt says
Williams was the one guy in the rotation with no trade value. Better to cut him now, save money and get a better look at Kelly (I hope), who’s been OK in limited burn. I tend to think he’ll get the minutes just because if MDA wanted to play Hill and/or Kaman more, surely he would’ve done it already?
bryan S. says
Shawne’s offensive skills are marginal, but he was showing more diversity to his game with some pull-up jumpers and drives. He did not hit enough 3s to justify his court time though. Good individual and team defender, good team guy. He’s battled hard to get back in the league from drugging his way out of it; I wish him the best on his difficult journey.
Can we get Earl Clark back?
Rex says
Couldn’t agree with you more Gene. This was the FO intervening on D’Antoni’s weird infatuation with Williams. He just isn’t a NBA rotational player. Kelly should get those minutes and Henry should get Wes Johnson’s minutes when he comes back.
The real question is what to do with Kendall Marshall when Nash/Farmer/Blake come back. Wouldn’t surprise me to see the Lakers showcase Blake for a trade when he gets healthy.
mindcrime says
Well, I know I don’t have to say what I think about his, having repeatedly identified this guy as the one who is most definitely NOT (IMHO) an NBA player
(as an aside–now watch–he will sign with Miami and average 8 and 6 and shoot 44% from three for the Heat down the stretch and in the playoffs….)
This actually reminds of “Moneyball” where Billy Beane trades Carlos Pena so Art Howe can’t keep playing Pena instead of the new castoffs……(note–I’m not predicting that LA will win 20 consecutive games like that A’s crew did)
West Coast Ram says
Really hard to see a reason to keep Williams as he just didn’t shoot well enough to justify his poor rebounding and rim protection. As a stretch 4 you have to bang down shots and he was almost as bad as Johnson when it came to filling it up from the outside. At least Johnson has heard the word defense before, which makes him a rare breed on this team.
minorthreatt says
Because you can argue that Kelly/Hill/Kaman are more than adequate to pick up frontcourt minutes, wonder what the chances are they’d use this spot to take a flier on another PG on a 10-day look or two, until Blake/Farmar return. Is Seth Curry still available via waiver claim?
rr says
I think this will obviously mean more time for Kelly, and that we will see Wesley Johnson at the 4 more. I don’t think it will affect what MDA does with Hill and Kaman that much–they are 5s in his mind, not 4s.
rr says
wonder what the chances are they’d use this spot to take a flier on another PG on a 10-day look or two,
___
I think those minutes will go to Henry when he comes back. I think they will want to see if Henry is viable as a 3rd-string PG.
minorthreatt says
I think they will want to see if Henry is viable as a 3rd-string PG.
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That makes sense — he’s definitely adept at getting into the paint, which could open things up for shooters like Meeks and Kelly. I wonder if he’s got the vision to run the MDA offense, even in limited minutes. I guess third stringers don’t always have a chance to run the usual playbook, though.
Robert says
Way too funny. Rey started it off with “who knows who’s actually getting more time?” , then Ko comes in with “Clearly FO and the coach are not on the same page.” and then it cascades down to gene/Rex and “This was the FO intervening on D’Antoni’s weird infatuation with Williams.”
Seriously dudes – give the guy a break : )
rr says
I think it is just the FO saving a little coin more than it is about MDA, actually. Williams is not in the plans next year, the playoffs are a very remote possibility, so why not save a few bucks? If the Lakers were 17-17 instead of 14-20, I am guessing that Williams would be sticking around.
Craig W. says
Mitch likes to keep the roster at 14 (just in case) – this accomplishes that.
The front office wants to see less time for Williams, to get others into the lineup – this accomplishes that.
The front office wants to save dollars – this accomplishes that.
The front office wants to send the message to the team that this is a ‘job interview’ year – this accomplishes that.
It also may be that the Lakers were playing Williams more to be able to include him in a trade before today, but his performance didn’t help them out in this respect.
Rubenowski says
This is interesting. One free roster spot. Maybe the FO is making room for a trade where we get back more than we give.
As to the whole MDA playing Williams too much and the FO waiving Williams so that MDA doesn’t play him anymore…you can also argue the opposite. Maybe the FO wanted Williams to get more burn so that they could see what kind of things he was capable of. They didn’t think they needed him so they let him go. That interpretation works just as well and I think makes more sense. Though I think the people who said that were probably joking.
J C says
Seems apparent that FO had seen enough of Williams regardless of Dantoni’s reasons for playing him.
If this doesn’t result in more PT for Hill and/or Kaman, then either FO agrees w Dantoni or maybe Dantoni will get the axe over the summer.
Tra says
I’m of the belief that D’Antoni saw this coming, hence the reason for the youngin’, Ryan Kelly, receiving more playing time as of late. Also, as others have mentioned, what’s the use in paying Williams for the remainder of the season if the team isn’t going anywhere?
Rey Moralde says
I honestly think this is more about the roster spot instead of the money (the cut obviously helps a tad). It’s not like Shawne is making like $10 million this season.
And I meant it when I said, “Who knows who’s getting PT?” You’ve seen the line-ups. One game, Kaman is not playing. The next he starts. Hill gets 24 and 17. Now he’s barely playing 10 minutes.
So we shall see.
melcountscounts says
Free Chris Kaman.