Lakers will invite Shawne Williams to training camp

Even with the new wing additions the Los Angeles Lakers have added, the team still has a place for another shooter off the bench who can play both forward spots. As the Miami Heat have demonstrated recently, moreover, you can never not have enough shooters and the Lakers took that to heart with their initial approach to free agency and the makeup of the summer league team to a lesser degree. We now have confirmation that the same probably will apply to their training camp invites; from ESPN New York's Ian Begley:

The Lakers will have ex-#Knick Shawne Williams in training camp. Mike D'Antoni is a big fan. Williams worked out for NY in late June.

Williams, a former first rounder of the Pacers, had floundered in the NBA for most of his career until coming to New York in 2010, beset by drug charges and poor play. In his single season under D'Antoni, Williams reinvented himself as a shooting wing who can play the four in smallball lineups, as he hit 40.1% of his threes en route to a respectable 12.25 PER season. Afterwards, he was filched from the Knicks by the Nets and returned quickly to the level of play that had him on the verge of being out of the league before 2010.

By all accounts, Williams fits the mold of what the Lakers need right now, although it is important to stress that this is a training camp invite and not a contract for the year. Williams will have to ultimately earn his spot on the team, which probably will entail beating out the best players on the Lakers' summer league squad, as Marcus Landry, Chris Douglas-Roberts, and Elias Harris have all acquitted themselves well in Las Vegas. Should Williams not resemble the player that was a useful rotation piece for D'Antoni in 2010,

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