With five games in the books to start the 2024-25 NBA regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers are sporting a record of 3-2 while playing much better than expected after having an awful offseason filled with questionable moves from the hiring of first-time head coach JJ Redick to drafting Bronny James.
As the team continues to show promise, the Lakers brass will likely show interest in making trades ahead of the NBA trade deadline in February, as this squad could be in the mix to make some noise in the Western Conference with the addition of another star player.
In the meantime, the Lakers chose to make an interesting move on Thursday ahead of their matchup with the Toronto Raptors on the road at Scotiabank Arena on Friday night.
According to NBA insider Chris Haynes, Los Angeles will decline the third-year rookie-scale option on second-year guard Jalen Hood-Schifino, making him an unrestricted free agent during the NBA offseason.
Sources: Los Angeles Lakers are declining the third-year rookie-scale option on Jalen Hood-Schifino and he will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season. pic.twitter.com/0MMmmA4cp5
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) October 31, 2024
The Lakers selected Hood-Schifino with the No. 17 overall pick out of Indiana University in the 2023 NBA Draft last year and had high hopes he could help upgrade the backcourt in the near future.
However, Hood-Schifino has been a resounding disappointment in the short time he’s been with the team and hasn’t shown any reason why the team should have any faith he’ll turn things around moving forward.
With the team seeing a lot of promising in their first-round pick this year, Dalton Knecht, and having high hopes for guard Max Christie, the team likely feels there’s no room for Hood-Schifino, who is clearly a project and possibly a player who never reaches his potential in the NBA.
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