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The Los Angeles Lakers continued their scramble to fill out the rest of their roster in the aftermath of Kawhi Leonard choosing the LA Clippers in free agency, with Quinn Cook as the latest name to join the team after Danny Green, JaVale McGee and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope all quickly agreed to deals in Leonard’s wake on Friday night.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports broke the news of Cook’s addition.
Free agent guard Quinn Cook has reached an agreement with the Los Angeles Lakers on a two-year, $6 million deal, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) July 6, 2019
Cook — who became an unrestricted free agent when the Golden State Warriors rescinded his qualifying offer to make cap space for D’Angelo Russell — still leaves the Lakers with a bit of cap room in the aftermath of his agreement:
The Lakers will need to take pen to paper on each of the free agent (except for the room ML) agreements before they conduct the Anthony Davis trade. Right now, LAL projects to have $5.5M in room (if Cook or McGee signs with room) and the $4.8M exception.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) July 6, 2019
Cook is the first point guard to join the Lakers this summer, and is a career 41.8 percent 3-point shooter who will help the team’s spacing. Last season with the Warriors, the third-year guard averaged 6.9 points per game on 46.9 percent shooting from the field, including 40.5 percent shooting from behind the arc, in 14.3 minutes per game.
Going into the offseason, fans were hoping the Lakers made a shooting a priority and through signing Jared Dudley, Troy Daniels, Danny Green and now Cook, it’s clear the team has done just that. However, unlike Dudley and Green, Cook only plays one side of the ball.
Among 100 eligible point guards last season, Cook ranked 97th in Defensive Real Plus-Minus, according to ESPN. For context, only Jordan Clarkson, rookie guard Collin Sexton and Trae Young posted a worse DRPM. The Lakers might be able to hide Cook on defense whenever Green is on the floor, but his shortcomings on that end will probably keep him from being the team’s starting point guard.
Expect the Lakers to sign another point guard — potentially Rajon Rondo and/or Alex Caruso — within the next few days.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. Here is a list of every free agent credibly connected to the Lakers so far.