Tag: Thomas Bryant

Thomas Bryant says Austin Reaves is a ‘skilled killer’

Austin Reaves’ former Lakers teammate Thomas Bryant had some high praise for the undrafted guard.

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Coming off a sensational second season in the NBA, Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves is drawing praise from all corners of the league.

He recently secured a new four-year contract worth more than $50 million, and some believe the All-Star team could be in his near future.

The other day, teammate D’Angelo Russell went on “The Pat Bev Pod” and called Reaves a “killer,” a sentiment Patrick Beverley agreed with. Now former teammate Thomas Bryant has said something similar about the undrafted Arkansas native while on the “Buckets” podcast.

Via Lakers Nation:

“Skilled killer. It’s crazy because people just now seeing what Austin can do. Put it on the floor, shoot that thing and everything, get to his spots and get to the rim but I’ve seen that throughout the whole time and throughout the summer playing with him and against him. I was like, ‘Yo, Austin’s nice. A-R’s nice, man, he can play.’ I’m generally happy for him because he just getting to showcase what he do and that’s just very happy for me to just see one of my boys just do it, man.”

In fact, Bryant told a story about how Reaves responded to some opponents who tried to rough him up during a game.

“Oh yeah, they tried to rough him up one time when we playing in the summertime. They tried to foul him a few times and they was talking to him and he was talking back at ’em. He was like, ‘Nah, I’m about that. I’m about this. Stop playing with me, I can get down with it.’ And he went out there and did it, too. I was like, ‘Yeah, come on now. A-R’s straight.’”

Reaves has become one of the league’s feel-good stories after coming from humble beginnings, and he’s just getting started.

Three potential lower-cost depth targets for the Boston Celtics in free agency

A recent Bleacher Report analysis highlights a pair of wings and a big Boston ought to keep tabs in in free agency.

The Boston Celtics will have their work cut out for them this offseason as they try to beef up their roster in pursuit of a title in the 2023-23 season with one of the most expensive payrolls in the league before they add a single body to their ball cub just as the first elements of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) designed to punish teams like Boston start to come into effect.

In layman’s terms, that means the Celtics will not have much money to work with this offseason, limited to whatever they can do with the taxpayer midlevel exception and veteran minimum deals available to them.

Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley put together a trio of potentially low-cost targets for the Celtics to pursue in free agency with those limits in place for Boston — let’s see which players the B/R analyst believes are both attainable in that range and a good fit.

Lakers trade Patrick Beverley to Magic for Mo Bamba

The Lakers made yet another move on Thursday. adding rim protection and 3-point shooting in center Mo Bamba.

The Los Angeles Lakers have been very active leading up to this year’s NBA trade deadline, which was 3 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday.

They first sent little-used guard Kendrick Nunn and second-round draft compensation to the Washington Wizards for forward Rui Hachimura. Hachimura quickly moved into the starting lineup. Although he is still feeling his way into the team’s offense, he is clearly something of an upgrade.

Before his arrival, Los Angeles had a clear dearth of productive forwards other than LeBron James.

Late Wednesday, reports broke of the Lakers’ big move, getting rid of Russell Westbrook, Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damian Jones, plus a 2027 first-round pick for guard D’Angelo Russell, big man Jarred Vanderbilt and sharpshooter Malik Beasley.

Then, right before the deadline on Thursday, the Lakers sent Patrick Beverley and second-round draft capital to the Orlando Magic for center Mo Bamba.

Bamba will greatly fortify a Lakers frontline that suddenly looks very strong.

He’s averaging 7.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1 block and 17 minutes per game this season, and he will give L.A. a true center who can protect the rim, grab rebounds and finish strongly at the hoop.

But Bamba can also stretch the floor. He is shooting 39.8% from 3-point range this year on 2.7 attempts per game, and along with Russell and Beasley, he should greatly address the Lakers’ lack of outside shooting.

General manager Rob Pelinka has somehow managed to greatly replenish his team’s roster and rectify at least some of its issues despite a lack of trade assets.

The projected rotation for the Lakers with D’Angelo Russell and Mo Bamba sort of looks like a contender

Wait a second … can this team maybe make some noise in the playoffs?!

After months and months of rumors, the Lakers have finally agreed to trade Russell Westbrook. They even got a decent value for him in return.

Westbrook, who had a heated verbal exchange with Lakers head coach Darvin Ham before he was eventually traded to the Jazz as part of a three-team deal, will have his minutes replaced in the rotation by D’Angelo Russell as well as Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley.

The Lakers, who also sent away Damian Jones and Juan Toscano-Anderson as part of the trade package, will look very different next time they are on the floor.

Their front office made multiple additional moves, including trading away Thomas Bryant and Patrick Beverley while also trading for Mo Bamba.

Based on what we know so far, here is how we would project the rotation:

Thomas Bryant grew ‘unhappy’ with Lakers and asked for a trade after Anthony Davis returned

Thomas Bryant was losing minutes to Anthony Davis.

When the Los Angeles Lakers signed Thomas Bryant, it was sneakily one of the best moves made during the offseason.

Bryant, who first made his professional debut with the Lakers in 2017 before returning this season, was playing very well during his second stint with Los Angeles.

The big man was shooting a career-best 44.0 percent on 3-pointers while also averaging 12.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. But according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, he had reportedly “grown unhappy” with his diminished playing time since Anthony Davis returned to the lineup.

According to Shelburne, Bryant asked the Lakers to find “a better situation” before the deadline. He was traded to the Nuggets in exchange for Davon Reed and three second-round picks.

The Nuggets, who are the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, couldn’t be in a better situation to welcome Bryant.

While they have arguably the best player in the league with back-to-back MVP Nikola Jokic, they were otherwise incredibly thin in the frontcourt and desperately needed a backup big man.

Bryant, who turned into a meme when he asked for the pass on the shot when LeBron James’ broke the NBA’s all-time scoring record, will be a free agent this offseason. He should earn a decent contract from Denver or another team that looks to sign him.

This move will give the Lakers an opportunity to give more minutes to more defensive-oriented players in the frontcourt like Jarred Vanderbilt — recently acquired in the trade for Russell Westbrook — and Wenyen Gabriel.

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Thomas Bryant calling for the ball in iconic LeBron James photo of record-breaking bucket had NBA fans making jokes

An iconic photo of James’s shot includes Bryant calling for the ball LOL.

LeBron James is now the all-time NBA scorer after he passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Tuesday night … and the photo of the shot that got him there is everywhere.

It’s an incredible frozen moment in time as everyone watched — mostly with their phones to capture it — as he took a jumper.

So of course NBA fans found the one really funny thing about it and are making jokes about it: As James went up to take the shot, his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Thomas Bryant appeared to be calling for the ball under the basket as the big man posted up.

I don’t think it’s a bad move! You never know when the man with the fourth-most dimes ever could dish you the ball.

Still, the jokes are pretty hilarious:

Three observations from Lakers’ loss to the Clippers

The proverbial away team shot 15-for-22 from three in the first half. Fifteen makes is a great total for a whole game. They accomplished that in 24 minutes.

The Los Angeles Lakers (22-25) hosted the Los Angeles Clippers (25-24) on Tuesday. Both teams wanted to extend their winning streak to three games. But the black jerseys lit the Purple and Gold up from deep en route to a wire-to-wire victory, 133-115.

LeBron James scored 46 points on 16-for-29 shooting, including 9-for-14 from beyond the arc, with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.

Russell Westbrook scored 17 points on 4-for-13 shooting and dished five assists.

Paul George scored 27 points on 11-for-20 shooting and pulled down 9 rebounds.

Kawhi Leonard scored 25 points on 11-for-16 shooting and grabbed 9 rebounds.

Here are three observations from the Lakers’ loss.

Best low-cost wing and big man trade targets for the Boston Celtics

The Celtics may add a wing to help take pressure off of their stars, as well as look at a big man who might be able to ease the minute load on the ball club’s frontcourt.

The Boston Celtics will likely make a move or two ahead of the 2023 NBA trade deadline to add a wing to help take some pressure off of their two stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, as well as taking a look at a big man who might be able to ease the minutes load on the ball club’s frontcourt.

With Brown and Tatum among the highest minutes-per-night players in the league and bigs Al Horford and Robert Williams III likely also playing more than they ought to be in order to be fresh and at their respective peaks for the 2023 NBA Playoffs, both bigs and wings are likely priorities. And with a hefty tax bill already on the table, cheaper solutions in terms of salary and asset cost that would raise the team’s payroll little or not at all will probably be the preferred route.

With that in mind, we put together a comprehensive list of such options the Celtics might target that wouldn’t need more than a first-round pick (and some much less) plus younger prospects in a reasonable deal.

Ranking the 11 best players on a minimum contract

HoopsHype ranks the 11 best NBA players on minimum contracts in the 2022-23 NBA seasons, including multiple Lakers.

In the NBA, teams that perform at the highest level often have players who exceed expectations and produce at a high level while on team-friendly, cost-effective contracts.

With that in mind, we’re going to examine the top 11 most productive players currently on minimum-salary contracts for the 2022-23 season.

As you will, the list features multiple Los Angeles Lakers players, which is quite a turnaround compared to last season, when they had multiple inefficient minimum guys. It’s safe to say most – if not all – of these players will be on better contracts next year.

Darvin Ham to look at playing Anthony Davis and Thomas Bryant together

When Anthony Davis returns from injury, he could be playing more often alongside Thomas Bryant.

In November and early December, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis was playing dominant basketball, and he was quite possibly the best player in the NBA.

That span lasted 13 games, during which Davis averaged 32.4 points on 64.1% shooting, 14 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots per game.

Since Davis suffered a stress injury in his foot, Thomas Bryant has filled in extremely well, putting up 17.2 points and 10.2 boards a game while shooting 65.8% since Dec. 16, the date of Davis’ injury.

Davis is reportedly progressing well in his rehab, and there is optimism that he could return to game action before the end of January.

When that happens, head coach Darvin Ham could employ more lineups with Davis and Bryant in the frontcourt at the same time.

Via Lakers Daily:

“Absolutely,” Ham said, per Jovan Buha. “I mean, the way A.D. is able to function out on the perimeter, we don’t want him to be too far on that side. We want him to have a happy balance. But definitely. They’re all very highly-skilled players – Bron (LeBron James) , A.D., Thomas. They all can score at all three levels. They all can defend. They all can have good activity, good instincts. So, yeah, that’s something we’ll definitely take a look at.”

Such lineups could benefit the Lakers most on the defensive end, where Davis could play more of a perimeter disrupter role, much as he did during their championship season three years ago.

What would make such lineups possible, especially on the offensive end, is Bryant’s ability to hit the perimeter shot. He isn’t a high-volume 3-point shooter by any means, but he is hitting 45.2% on 1.1 3-point attempts in 22.1 minutes a game this season.

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