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The Los Angeles Lakers are getting close to capacity for the summer league rosters, and made what is presumably one of their final additions by reportedly signing Nick King of Middle Tennessee to their squad.
Nick King tells me he will be playing in the summer league with the Los Angeles #Lakers. King set the single-season scoring record for @MT_MBB last season. @CrownMeKing5_
— Justin Beasley (@JBeasleyWSMV) June 22, 2018
In addition to his single-season scoring record, King averaged 21 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while shooting 49.5 percent from the field. Middle Tennessee was King’s third school in his NCAA career, after prior stops at Memphis and Alabama.
King’s production wasn’t strong enough to vault him onto ESPN’s list of the top 100 prospects in the 2018 NBA Draft, however, so he’ll join the Lakers’ summer league roster looking to surprise people as an undrafted free agent.
He’ll face stiff competition to do so, given that the Lakers have already signed Malik Newman, Joel Berry II, Jeffrey Carroll, Johnathan Williams and Malik Pope to their roster for the NBA’s summer leagues in Las Vegas and Sacramento.
Lakers draftees Moe Wagner, Isaac Bonga and Svi Mykhailiuk are all expected to play in summer league as well, as are returning Lakers Thomas Bryant and Josh Hart. Hart, however, is only expected to play in a pair of games.
Newman was given one of the Lakers’ two two-way contracts that don’t count as a normal roster spot, while Carroll was signed on an Exhibit 10 deal that allows the Lakers to convert his minimum contract into a two-way one should the Lakers want to keep him around in the G League rather than on their regular roster.
King could surprise with a strong summer league, but if he can’t make the most of what might be a small opportunity, he might be on the outside looking in at the Lakers roster when Las Vegas Summer League wraps up.
You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.