The Los Angeles Lakers chose to give Kobe Bufkin a standard NBA contract following the trade deadline, believing they would rather move forward with what he gives them over anyone on the buyout market. Now, it appears they may have some buyer’s remorse.<\/p>\n
Shams Charania reported on Twitter\/X<\/a>: “The Los Angeles Lakers are waiving guard Kobe Bufkin, sources tell ESPN. This opens a roster spot for the Lakers to evaluate a signing over the weekend.”<\/p>\n This creates an opportunity for Rob Pelinka and the front office to tinker with the roster ahead of a first-round series that will likely exclude<\/a> Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. The Lakers have one of two options with how they handle this.<\/p>\n If they wanted to go external to fill that spot, Los Angeles would need to sign someone who was released before March 1 to have them be eligible for playoff basketball. The path that should be much more likely is converting one of their current two-way players to a standard deal just in time to be added to the postseason roster. <\/p>\n Those guys already know the Lakers system. Realistically, that makes it a high probability of that spot going to either Nick Smith Jr. or Drew Timme.<\/p>\n Drew Timme and Nick Smith Jr. have one final opportunity to earn permanent Lakers spot<\/p>\n