The LA Lakers made another mid-season roster move.
Through 38 games played, the LA Lakers have a 21-17 record, which leaves them mid-table as the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference. While it would be good enough to make the playoffs and avoid the Play-In Tournament, the conference is tight-knit for the mid-table teams and they could easily fall a few seeds down with a bad stretch of play.
Led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers have plenty of potential. The club is looking to make roster tweaks to help first-year head coach JJ Redick as they project to be a playoff team, though they need to sharpen up their game to become title contenders.
While the team made a mid-season trade to land Dorian Finney-Smith, they recently waived one player to make room for Trey Jamison, who recently played for the New Orleans Pelicans.
In-season moves are quite common across the NBA as teams see what areas they might be able to improve. The Lakers added Jemison for one key reason.
The 6-foot-11, 260-pound center brings a wealth of size to add down low and bring in off the bench to have a force against the opposition. Anthony Davis doesn’t quite have the size of Jemison, so it’s a good asset to have on the bench.
Redick even let Jemison know what they were looking for with his addition, meaning he knows exactly what to bring for the Lakers.
Asked what Redick told him, Jemison responded: “I gotta be a dog, man. Just bring great energy on the bench, games, talking loud. Be physical man,” Jemison explained.
“Just be extremely physical, just help, you know what I’m saying? I’m not here to be a superstar and I’m not here to score a lot of points; rebound, block shots, play defense.”
Doing the dirty work and using his physicality is going to give Jemison direction when he hits the floor for the Lakers, which is what any role player can do to provide value when they aren’t a star.
The 6-foot-11 center made his NBA debut during the 2023-24 NBA season, and he played 25 games — two with the Washington Wizards and 23 with the Memphis Grizzlies — before joining the Pelicans this season.
Jemison has averaged 10.4 minutes per game for the Pelicans. He was prepared to join the Birmingham Squadron — the Pelicans’ G League affiliate — after being cut by the club, as he revealed.
“Frustrated, hurt [at being cut by New Orleans]. But just trusting God, man, knowing tomorrow will work out. I ended up going back to Birmingham to practice with the G League,” Jemison revealed.
“Going through their practice and watching them practice, I think I’m gonna play with them. And got a phone call from JJ, Changed overnight, so be grateful, man.”
Jemison was going to return to the G League as he was working out in Birmingham again, though things quickly changed for him. That was just before Redick told him what they needed from him in Los Angeles, too.
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