On December 17, Beijing time, according to the news of the NBA Shams, the Los Angeles Lakers will sign a contract with free agent Thomas Jr. Because many players in the Lakers lineup have triggered health and safety agreements, in the current situation, the Lakers have also obtained two difficult exceptions according to the regulations, and the Lakers signed Thomas Jr. to use this difficult exception to provide Thomas Jr. with a short-term contract with a 10-day term.
It is worth mentioning that just yesterday Thomas Jr. just appeared on the NBA Development League Court, and in the development league's debut, Thomas Jr. finally achieved 42 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists in a single game. At least from the data performance in the development league, Thomas Jr.'s current competitive state is still quite good, which may be the reason why the Lakers will choose to sign Thomas Jr. After all, as a former NBA League All-Star, Thomas Jr.'s scoring firepower on the offensive end has always been very strong, and at his peak, Thomas Jr. had a season average of 20+ points per game.
Unfortunately, since being sent away by the Celtics trade, due to continuous injury problems and natural disadvantages on the defensive end, Thomas Jr. also quickly fell out of the list of first-tier stars, and was eventually abandoned by many teams, and could only temporarily leave the NBA league stadium. Previously, Thomas Jr. also repeatedly introduced himself on social media, publicly stating that he wanted to return to the NBA, and now Thomas Jr. has finally got what he wants, and the former league "King of the Last Quarter" can finally step onto the NBA regular season stage again.
However, there is still a scoop of cold water here, that is, it is not optimistic about the prospects of Thomas Jr.'s season in the Lakers. As we all know, Lakers coach Vogel is an NB head coach who started defensively, although the overall defense of the Lakers this season is actually not outstanding, but this is subject to many problems such as the age of the players and injuries, Vogel still highly respects defense in his bones. And Thomas Jr. is a veritable defensive colander, and now the team signed Thomas Jr. only because no one is available, once Westbrook, Bradley and others return to the team smoothly, it is estimated that the Lakers will not continue to leave Thomas Jr.