Lakers’ Biggest Mistake Of NBA Offseason Revealed

The Los Angeles Lakers had a rough offseason.

They were supposed to add one or more of Klay Thompson, DeMar DeRozan and/or Dejounte Murray.

In the end – they got none of the above. Aside from connecting a weird plan to steal Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks and drafting Bronny James, L.A. didn’t do much of note this summer.

This week, John Hollinger broke down L.A.’s biggest mistake of the NBA offseason.

In his estimation, it was signing Max Christie to a 4-year, $32 million extension.

“The problem was that A) they actually tried him quite a bit (944 minutes across 67 Games), and B) he wasn’t any good (8.4 PER, minus-3.6 BPM), such that C) he couldn’t crack the full-strength rotation of what was arguably the worst bench in the league,” Hollinger wrote.

“Thus, it was a bit shocking to see the Lakers commit to a four-year, $32 million free-agent deal to bring him back, one that included a fourth-year player option. Talking to some other people around the league, I don’t think I’m alone in this opinion.”

It’s hard to argue with Hollinger’s take. Christie averaged 4.2 points, 2.1 rebounds, and a single assist per outing. He was allotted just over 14 minutes per game, and he wasn’t allowed to play in the playoffs.

What part of that deserves $32 million?

It will be interesting to see if Christie rises to the occasion next season, but nobody can be blamed for thinking the Lakers committed another blunder and overpaid him.

Carlos Garcia

A longtime Sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB Games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.