Gary Trent Jr. is coming off his fourth season playing for the Toronto Raptors.
The former Duke star finished the year with averages of 13.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists per contest while shooting 42.6% from the field and 39.3% from the three-point range in 71 games.
This summer, Trent Jr. became a free agent who is available to sign with any team in the league.
On July 7, he remains unsigned.
Recently, Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Los Angeles Lakers could be a landing spot for Trent Jr. (h/t HoopsHype).
Via Buha and Charania’s article in The Athletic: “Gary Trent Jr. and Spencer Dinwiddie are two names to watch for if the Lakers clear enough space to use their taxpayer midlevel exception, according to league sources.”
LeBron James took a $2.7 million discount to help the Lakers stay under the dreaded second apron.
On what it means and a couple of names to watch for if LA can clear enough space in a salary-dumping trade to use their taxpayer mid-level exception: https://t.co/dU0AhBEZhu
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) July 7, 2024
Trent Jr. was the 37th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
He has played six seasons in the league for the Portland Trail Blazers (and Raptors).
Trent Jr. has career averages of 14.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.2 steals per contest while shooting 42.2% from the field and 38.6% from the three-point range in 341 regular season games.
He has also appeared in 11 NBA playoff games (seven starts).
The Lakers are showing interest in signing Gary Trent Jr., per @jovanbuha (https://t.co/IoAt6UU1FQ).
Trent averaged 13.7 points while shooting 39.3% on threes for the Raptors.
Los Angeles still needs to clear cap space in order to utilize their taxpayer mid-level exception. pic.twitter.com/pHeZ5QHk6P
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) July 7, 2024
As for the Lakers, they finished the 2023-24 season as the seventh seed in the Western Conference with a 47-35 record.
They beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament, but lost to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs.