Antawn Jamison's Impact on the Lakers

For people who have been fans of the NBA for a long time, Antawn Jamison isn’t necessarily a player that brings positive thoughts to mind. From his stint in Dallas where he seemed uninterested to his ineffectiveness in Cleveland with helping win an NBA championship, Antawn Jamison hasn’t done much in terms of winning. Despite being 36 years of age and a terrible defender, Jamison is exactly what the Lakers need.

Last year fans pointed to a lack of a true PG, a terrible transition team susceptible to runouts, and poor team shooting as reasons for the team’s struggles. Although all of these can be explained as shortcomings, the biggest weakness was the bench scoring. As mentioned in an earlier post, the re-signing of Jordan Hill can help add more ability to what is one of the league’s worst benches. Hill should be re-signed because he will add some young talent to the bench, but Jamison is going to have a much bigger impact on the 2012-2013 Lakers.

Jamison will be the 6^th man of the team and should be able to compete for the 6^th man of the year award. Playing with a distributor like Nash is going to help get him open looks just like everyone else on the team. Although Jamison has been a starter in this league, his scoring shouldn’t drop because he should see  a high number of minutes for a 6^th man and when he is on the floor with Blake, Morris, Goudelock, and some of the other reserves will make him the first option. He is a sound offensive player and although he is not a strong defensive player, he can rebound well and should also help in that area. AJ is the definition of a low risk, high reward investment and the upcoming season should be a positive one for him.