One of the last moves that the Los Angeles Lakers made prior to signing Dion Waiters in hopes of adding a stronger scoring punch to the bench was waiving sharpshooter Troy Daniels. Daniels loved being a part of the Lakers before he was eventually waived on the day before the March 1 deadline to be playoff eligible as a free agent. And at least according to him, the decision was ultimately his as the Lakers had let him know that getting cut was a possibility beyond March 1.
In an interview with Mark Berman of the Roanoke New Times, Daniels said that he made the best decision for his career to be free to join a playoff team, which he did with the Denver Nuggets, after consulting with Lakers team leaders LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“[The Lakers said,] ‘We don’t know if we’re going to cut Troy or not. We love him, we want to keep him on the team, but there is a chance that could happen. And we wouldn’t want him to not be able to be on a playoff team,’ ” Daniels said. “So they gave me the chance to go out and find teams. There were five or six teams very interested … We found a team [Denver] that was ready to go and we went to the Lakers.
“I had the choice to leave the Lakers or I had the choice to stay. … I actually called LeBron, I called A.D., and I got their input. They basically said, ‘Make the best decision for you and your career.’ ”
After the Lakers waived their injured center DeMarcus Cousins, they added Markieff Morris prior to waiving Daniels. That was followed by the Waiters acquisition. However, the season was suspended before Waiters was able to make his Lakers debut.
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