For the Lakers and their fans, this season's performance has been a failure. Originally the Lakers' goal was to win the championship trophy again, and as a result, they were plagued by injuries, veteran states decline and poor chemistry throughout the season, and the strategic goals and requirements were repeatedly reduced, but the Lakers had no lower limit at all, and even the playoffs could not be played, which was really surprising.
Of course, in such a failed season, the Lakers also have gains, and the US media has highlighted two young players, namely Malik Munch and Austin Reeves. Although they are only on a base salary contract this season, whether it is Malik Munch or Austin Reeves, they are the Most Outstanding Role Players in the Lakers. In other words, despite the poor record of the Purple and Gold Army, these two really tried their best, if it were not for their excellent performance, the Lakers would probably really have to stand shoulder to shoulder with teams such as the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma Thunder and fight for the signing.
Malik Munch was also a proud son of heaven, playing for the university of Kentucky before entering the league, and once had an explosive performance of 47 points in a single game, and in 2017, Malik Munch was selected by the Charlotte Hornets with the 11th pick in the first round. In terms of style characteristics, Malik Munch has some similarities with Utah Jazz core Donovan Mitchell, but his luck is much worse. Unlike Donovan Mitchell, who was developed as a core after entering the league, Malik Munch was only a full-fledged substitute for the first two years of his career, and his performance was relatively flat. Although Malik Munch has gained more opportunities and averaged double-digit points per game over the past two seasons, it is still far from what was expected in the draft.
Malik Munch became a free agent last summer and didn't even make a qualifying offer for him due to the Hornets' overcrowding of the backcourt. Malik Munch is also quite tough, in the case of a team to provide a higher offer, Malik Munch still chose to sign a 1-year 1-year 1.79 million US dollars basic salary contract with the Lakers. So far this season, he has averaged 13.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game, shooting 47.3 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from three-point range. Despite the Lakers' continued losses, Malik Munch's personal performance was very good, especially in the back-to-back game against the Philadelphia 76ers, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks at the end of last month, Malik Munch scored 20+ points.
By the time this summer, Malik Munch will be a free agent again, and considering he's only 24 years old and has been quite good this season, it's clear that he has a chance to fight for a more lucrative contract. To know that Malik Munch has the projection ability of 100 steps through Yang, sometimes he can also attack with the ball, look at the same type of Terrence Rose and Hardaway Jr. have an annual salary of tens of millions, not to mention that Malik Munch wants to be like them, at least from the market value, he is obviously not excessive in terms of middle-class contracts.
As for Austin Reeves, he is a missing draft, in fact, Austin Reeves originally had the opportunity to be selected in the second round, but because he was a Lakers fan since he was a child, Austin Reeves took the initiative to give up such an opportunity, begging other teams not to choose themselves, he would rather be a loser draft and sign a contract with the Lakers. Through the excellent performance of Summer United and preseason, Austin Reeves quickly passed the test, and the Lakers signed him a two-way contract.
Before that, the outside world knew nothing about Austin Reeves, and there may be people who confused the two because his name was very similar to the Nuggets. But Austin Reeves quickly let the outside world remember him through his excellent performance, especially in the Lakers' away game against the Dallas Mavericks at the beginning of the season, both sides rained three points in the last minute, and Austin Reeves received a pass from Russell Westbrook and hit a whistle-pressing three-pointer in the bottom corner to help the Lakers kill the Lone Rangers on the road, which can be said to be a famous game. Of course, Austin Reeves is not a rare dumpling, he has been a member of the Lakers rotation lineup this season, and that passion and vitality are obviously not available to the veterans in the team.
Although as the season progresses, as several of the Lakers' main players are either out of the game due to injuries or their form seems to be fluctuating, role players do not have many bright spots because they do not get the opportunity to shoot easily, Austin Reeves is like this. Combining annual salary and overall performance, it is not too much to say that Austin Reeves is the biggest gain of the Lakers this season. Unlike Malik Munch, the Lakers want to keep Austin Reeves for a long time, the difficulty is slightly smaller, and personally feel that the example of Austin Reeves can inspire the Lakers management, that is, a dare to fight the draft can play such a big role, it can be seen that the Lakers really need to pay attention to the cultivation of young players, too many veterans sometimes really do more harm than good, and this is one of the reasons why the Lakers are going to fail this season.