Lakers officially sign Sterling Brown to 10-day contract

With the first day that teams could sign players to 10-day contracts passing on Thursday, the Los Angeles Lakers are finally going to use the open roster spot they created by cutting Matt Ryan last month, as Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the team is signing Sterling Brown out of the G League on Friday morning.

The team officially announced the move in a statement a few hours later.

Brown is averaging 11.6 points and shooting a career-high 38.1% from three for the Raptors 905 in the minor league this season. And as Dan Woike of The Los Angeles Times notes, Brown also has a relationship with Lakers head coach Darvin Ham from the latter’s time as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks while Brown was playing there.

Brown also (almost) ticks the “former Laker” checkbox required of many additions this team makes, as he is the younger brother of former Lakers champion Shannon Brown.

With the signing coming on Friday, Brown will officially be eligible for the team’s next five games against the Hawks, Kings, Nuggets, Mavericks and Sixers, dates in which they may need him with the news that Austin Reaves and Lonnie Walker will both miss the next two weeks. The team can re-sign Brown to a second 10-day deal after that, but would then have to sign him for the rest of the season if they wanted to keep him around beyond those second 10 days, as teams can only sign a single player to two 10-day contracts per season.

Because we noted this with the news that the Lakers were working out Tyler Dorsey yesterday, we should point out that Brown — listed at 6’5 — will now be the eighth Laker on the 15-man roster who is shorter than 6’6. However, Brown is more of a natural position fit than Dorsey, as not only did he play primarily small forward for 52 NBA games for the Bucks during the 2019-20 season, but he also has a 6’9 wingspan.

The reason Brown hasn’t been able to stick in the NBA, presumably, is that he is only a career 36.4% 3-point shooter, and shot just 30.4% with the Dallas Mavericks last year in his most recent NBA season. However, if that shot has started to tick up in the G League, he certainly profiles as the type of player who is at the very least worth a look on a 10-day contract for this wing-starved group.

This breaking news story may update with more information and analysis as it continues to develop. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.