Lakers have ‘weighed’ the possibility of signing Isaiah Thomas

With just over a month until training camp, the Los Angeles Lakers only have 12 fully-guaranteed contracts on their roster, not including the two-way contracts of Joel Ayayi and Austin Reaves. While the fate of the final three roster spots could be decided in training camp, the Lakers apparently aren’t done looking at free agents.

According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Lakers have recently considered signing two-time All-Star Isaiah Thomas, who last played for the New Orleans Pelicans:

The Los Angeles Lakers still have a few roster spots open and have weighed using one of them to sign former All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas, league sources say.

The addition of Thomas is far from assured, sources stressed, but the Lakers are looking for additional backcourt punch as well as wing depth as they decide how to supplement the 12 veteran players they have under contract.

If the Lakers went forward with signing Thomas, it wouldn’t be his first time with the team. In 2018, Thomas appeared in 17 games for Los Angeles and averaged 15.6 points per game and 5 assists per game while shooting 38.3% from the field and 32.7% from behind the arc. Thomas’ stint with the Lakers was cut short so that he could have an arthroscopic procedure on his right hip, the same hip that he famously injured in his final season with the Boston Celtics.

It also wouldn’t be Thomas’ first time playing alongside LeBron James, although his stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers was just as successful as his brief time with the Lakers, which is to say it wasn’t. The good news is that the Lakers aren’t taking that into consideration, per Stein. The bad news is that they already have a deep guard rotation, so it’s unlikely that he’d get the opportunity he needs to rejuvenate his NBA career.

Still, there are worse places to being your journey back to the NBA than Los Angeles — we’ll see if Thomas and the Lakers strike a deal before training camp starts.

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