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Lakers Free Agency: Lou Williams signs 3-year, $21 million contract with the Lakers

The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year is headed to the Lakers.

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Lou Williams to a three-year, $21 million contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Williams was the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year last season and was a scoring threat off the bench for the Toronto Raptors.

Williams averaged a career-high 15.5 points per game with the Raptors, becoming a huge part of their push to the Eastern Conference playoffs. He'll join a guard rotation featuring No. 2 pick D'Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Nick Young and Kobe Bryant. The latter two, based on how the Lakers' roster has come together thus far, look like they'll spend significant time at small forward.

Financially this is a tight fit for the Lakers' salary structure. Roy Hibbert will account for approximately $17 million due to the trade kicker in his contract, and LA was said to be trying to shed additional salary during negotiations with the Indiana Pacers.

Lou is 28 and should provide some additional veteran guidance to the Lakers' young backcourt duo. Williams was great at drawing fouls last season, averaging 4.9 free-throw attempts while shooting 86.1 percent from the line, and was a deadly corner-three shooter.

Here's a look at his shot chart, via Shot Analytics:

1

The Lakers lacked a backup point guard as both Jeremy Lin and Ronnie Price are unrestricted free agents. Lou has spent his career playing off the bench in a sixth-man role, and should continue filling out that role for Los Angeles.

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