Film Study: What Jay Huff adds to this Lakers team

Following an impressive Summer League campaign where he showed impressive potential on both ends of the floor, the Lakers signed former Virginia standout center Jay Huff to an Exhibit 10 contract. Huff’s new deal allows him to play in the preseason with the team and potentially be converted into one of the team’s two two-way contracts down the road. In that case, either Cole Swider or Scotty Pippen Jr. — the team’s current two-way contract-holders — would have to be converted into a standard NBA or G League contract.

With some unusually dynamic athleticism and coordination for his size, Huff could bring a potentially valuable skillset to the Lakers. Let’s go through the film to break down how he can help the team.

Adding Huff to the roster would give the Lakers another layer of flexibility to their current big-man rotation. Huff’s perimeter shooting and skill level provides a solid complement to Damion Jones’ more traditional rim-running skillset at the 5, Thomas Bryant’s ability to stretch the floor, and of course, Anthony Davis’ capacity to do basically anything and everything asked of him on a basketball court.

Of course, Summer League is much more unstructured than either preseason or regular season games, so only time will tell if Huff is able to translate the progress he displayed to the highest level of competition. In case he can, the Lakers would be wise to give Huff another audition in the preseason — the reps and exposure could prove invaluable for both him and the Lakers moving forwards.

Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. Combining his background in biomechanics, movement science, and learning science - he consults in a variety of sports including basketball on movement mechanics and skill acquisition. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.